THE owners of a Leeming Bar factory which is being rebuilt following a devastating fire last year turned down a chance to move the operation to Newton Aycliffe, it was revealed this week.

Vale of Mowbray has demonstrated its commitment to staying in Leeming Bar, home of the company for almost 80 years, with the new factory due to rise from the ashes of the old one in November on the same site in Leases Road.

Shock waves went through the local community last August when the old brick-built factory was consumed by a spectacular day-long blaze which began with an explosion in a gas oven and called on the combined efforts of 100 firefighters and 20 engines.

It remains the proud boast of VoM that it did not lay off any workers after the fire, even though it lost production capacity for two special Christmas pie lines, a substantial piece of business which the company hopes to recover this year with new machinery.

Production of other pies has been concentrated at the company's two bakeries on Leeming Bar industrial estate and sausages have been made elsewhere under contract.

Until normality is restored, VoM has leased the former boning plant at the closed Northern Counties Meat abattoir in Aiskew for the storage and distribution of finished products.

After the fire, management staff at Leeming Bar were forced initially to work in portable buildings but have since made offices in the former cloakrooms and first aid centre beside the main Leases Road entrance.

Work has now begun on the foundations of the new 30,000 sq ft factory, planning permission for which was granted last December.

The new split level buildings will look very different from the old, a prominent industrial landmark housed in former brewery buildings dating from 1868.

The upper part of their profiled sheet cladding will be painted in a maroon colour and the lower in mushroom, a choice reflecting the shades in the company's well known logo.

Costs are put at £4.2m for the factory and a further £1m for equipment but the company is receiving no grants except for a contribution from Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency.

VoM managing director John Gatenby, who was involved in a management buy-out in 1995 after controlling company Harris Pork and Bacon closed the operation with the loss of 80 jobs, was among the crowds who watched in dismay as the old buildings burned down seven months ago.

Mr Gatenby, who started work at Leeming Bar in 1965 and subsequently became a group director with Harris at plants elsewhere in the country, revealed that after the blaze VoM turned down offers involving a seven-figure sum to move to the industrial estate at Newton Aycliffe.

He said: "We were courted to go to Newton Aycliffe and were offered grants to go there.

"There was a certain synergy to that because a third of our people come from Darlington area and you could argue that we would have been better off, but our business is here in Leeming Bar and the core of our people have associations with Bedale, Northallerton and the Dales.

"We would still have had some business left in Leeming Bar and if we had moved away we would have had a split site."

Mr Gatenby admitted that his first choice would have been to rebuild on Leeming Bar industrial estate rather than in Leases Road, but the idea was thwarted because there was no estate land available even though there are plans for an extension.

He said: "People have been good to us on our present site and we have had no complaints, but it is still a factory in the middle of the village and we are in a wedge shape. Five or six acres of land on the estate would have been better."

VoM, which at present employs 175, had an annual turnover of £12m before the fire but the figure is expected to be £10m this year.

Mr Gatenby said: "We have made no one redundant and have been recruiting now for three months. The existing workforce has lost three or four hours a week because the two special pie ranges are not there.

"We are looking forward to the future. The pie business generally is growing by about 5pc a year in supermarkets. We produce a good product and have several supermarkets to develop trade in, along with catering.

"When we get this new factory open we will have surplus capacity here and want to look at developing some different flavoured delicatessen pies."