Crediton's Old Cider Works is being put back to the use it was built for thanks to its new owners.
Sandford Orchards has bought the building with help from NatWest, and will start making cider there this autumn.
Owner Barny Butterfield said: "It is a purpose-built 1930s cider works and from the 1930s to the 1960s it made some of the best cider in the world. It was an excellent producer of high-quality cider.
"Many of the farmers I buy apples from remember taking their apples to Creedy Valley Cider Company at the works, and it is really exciting to be able to bring the building back into a cider-making environment."
Barny founded Sandford Orchards 10 years ago when he was a farm labourer and used to make cider and bottle it from a five-gallon drum on his coffee table.
Now the company has 12 staff, including Barny's sister Tally, who is head cider maker, and has outgrown its home at Lower Park Farm, about half a mile away from the new premises.
Barny plans to increase cider production from the current 600,000 litres a year to be producing a total of four million litres over the next five years, and he said this ambition would also create new jobs.
"We now have the potential to grow to five times our size," he said.
The firm already supplies craft pubs in the South West and other parts of the UK, as well as the Wetherspoons chain and Marks and Spencer, in addition to selling online.
Work has now begun at the Old Cider Works, upgrading the apple bays to make them suitable for modern lorries, and reflooring ready to house the bottling and kegging lines.
"We have been running the business from our farm in an old milking parlour, cattle stalls and a hay barn, so to be somewhere designed around the production of cider is a joy," said Barny.
"The site is full of history and we are so chuffed to put it back to its original use. There is an old cooper's shed which we will restore, and we will have a shop and heritage area for people to be able to see all the bits and pieces of interest which are still at the works."
This year's harvest will be pressed at the cider works and Barny hopes to start bottling and kegging there in the New Year.
The works has been a fertiliser packing plant and an Army and Navy surplus store since it ceased being used to make cider. Sandford Orchards has purchased it thanks to a loan of £435,000 from NatWest, bringing total investment in the business to more than £1m in the past year.
Barny worked with NatWest relationship manager Martyn Taylor to secure the funding to buy the building.
Martyn said: "Sandford Orchards is producing a great product and has a strong management team with a clear focus and deliverable goals. NatWest was delighted to be able to help this growing business to bring their ambitions to fruition with a funding package which drew on the Government's Funding for Lending scheme.
"I am very excited to be working with Barny and the team and look forward to helping them further as they continue to grow."
