PETERS Cathedral Bakers will resume production and reopen its chain of shops next week, a month after its bakery headquarters was devastated by fire.

A temporary bakery production site being rapidly fitted out at Peterlee, County Durham, should be ready to go into operation by mid-week, with the family company's 71 shops across the North-East and North Yorkshire set to re-open next Thursday.

Senior staff and shop managers were given details of the recovery of the business in the aftermath of last month's fire at a meeting at Bowburn Hall Hotel, near Durham, yesterday.

Retail sales and business development manager Alan Dixon said the initial target for re-opening on Monday, May 24, was put back to allow the newly installed machinery to be tested.

The company has carried out a rapid fit-out of the disused Hibernia Foods unit, on Peterlee's North-East Industrial Estate, since the blaze at its Dragonville Industrial Estate base, in Durham.

Mr Dixon said: "We are just about back in business, ready to roll.

"We had to put the date back for the beginning of production until Wednesday to ensure we have everything right and to allow us to test all the machinery.

"We started three weeks ago with an empty shell, with a little bit of kit we inherited, and it has been a round-the-clock exercise since getting everything into place.

"I would think we will have between 70 and 80 per cent of our product range in the shops from Thursday, including all our best lines.

"Within around two weeks I would hope we can have the full range back in the shops."

A bus will take staff on two shifts to the plant from Durham.

Peters' 700 workers, including 150 production and administrative staff, were told their jobs were safe and have been paid since the fire ravaged the Dragonville plant on April 25.

Police, fire and insurance investigators have yet to determine the exact cause of the blaze.