Merrydown was founded in 1946 and is well known for its cider products. Its head office is at Horam Manor, near Heathfield. It has a turnover of £20 million and employs about 60 people.

Chris Carr, the cider division's managing director, said the continued success of the firm relied, in a large part, on the skills of its employees and the company was committed to training and developing them.

Any additional help from the Government to help workplace training programmes and apprenticeships would benefit the company.

Schemes to enable Merrydown to reward its employees in a tax-efficient manner would also please the firm and, no doubt, its workforce.

The company benefited from a small reduction in duty on cider in last year's Budget.

l Gordon Brown has frozen the duty on cider, which was something Merrydown had hoped for.