PRODUCTION was under way last night to ensure a family bakery's chain of shops are fully stocked for reopening today.

All 71 Peter's the Bakers shops, from Northumberland to North Yorkshire, will be up and running only a month after fire ripped through the company's Cathedral bakery in Durham City.

Fifty staff were safely evacuated but the complex, on the Dragonville Industrial Estate, was damaged beyond repair by what remains an unsolved blaze, on Sunday, April 25.

The company closed its shops and ceased production, but all 700 staff, including the bakery's 150-strong workforce, were told their jobs were safe and would continue to be paid.

Management quickly pinpointed a suitable alternative unit, the vacant former Hibernia Foods factory, on the North-East Industrial Estate, Peterlee, east Durham.

In a rapid fitting-out operation, bakery equipment has been bought and borrowed, while two shifts of staff have been shuttled in on buses from Durham as production got into full swing yesterday.

Retail sales manager Alan Dixon praised the entire Peter's workforce for their monumental effort to allow baking to resume yesterday, so soon after the fire.

"I cannot complement them enough. It has been a fantastic achievement and the response has been magnificent.

"This business employs some of the best people in the North-East and I'm amazed by their commitment.

"Everyone has mucked in to bring us to this point and there has been a great atmosphere today, almost a joie de vivre, as we finally got round to baking again."

Mr Dixon said about 80 per cent of Peter's lines, including all their popular savoury, sandwich, bread and confectionery products, would be available today, but he expects the entire range to be in the shops within a few weeks.

"All the branches have been given a last-minute spit and polish and I think our customers will be more than happy."

The company, started in Durham in 1966 by Peter Knowles, now its chairman, will move back to the city once the Dragonville site is re-built.