THERE was good and bad news for 400 workers at a collapsed North East bakery yesterday.
While 208 jobs were saved at 22 Peters Bakery stores across the region, the sale of the family business to Coopland and Son, of Scarborough, has resulted in the closure of 34 stores and 150 jobs being lost.
The Peters’ factory at the Dragonville Industrial Estate, in Durham, will transfer ownership to Cooplands seeing 69 staff who work at the factory keep their jobs. However, four distribution staff will be made redundant.
Peters’ retail van business is also being transferred over to Cooplands, accounting for 10 transferred staff. Two workers at Peters’ head office will lose their jobs.
The firm’s most recent financial statements show it had a turnover of more than £12m on the back of a network of 58 Peters’ Bakers stores across the region and 403 staff.
But the challenging environment on the high street, coupled with rising commodity and energy prices, led to the collapse of the 46-year-old firm last month. It appointed Mark Firmin and Howard Smith of KPMG as joint administrators.
Mr Firmin said: “We undertook negotiations with several interested parties and this deal represents the best outcome for both the creditors and the employees of the company.
“It means that as much of the business as possible will continue to trade under the new ownership of Cooplands, safeguarding more than 200 jobs.”
