A Newton Aycliffe factory has become one of the first in the North to try out an innovative vending machine.

The revolutionary Hotbite machine is cooking and serving fresh, hot toasted sandwiches to the 800 staff at the Flymo factory in Preston Road, Newton Aycliffe.

The machine, which uses a contact grill for cooking rather than microwaves, has been supplied by a group of franchise consultants in Grange Road, Darlington.

The team from The Franchise Consultants company came across the machine themselves and were so impressed they decided to buy the North-East franchise themselves.

Each machine can store up to 150 fresh sandwiches in date-stamped, sealed bags inside a chilled compartment, and two different recipes from a range of eight can be offered at a time.

Once a selection has been made, the machine picks the sandwich, inserts it into the internal grill and dispenses it, hot, 90 seconds later.

Sandwich prices range from £1.50 to £2.50.

The Flymo factory, which is owned by Electrolux, produced the world's first hover mower, and today it makes about 70,000 products a week during peak production, including hover mowers, garden vacuums and hedge and grass trimmers, which are sold throughout the UK and exported all over Europe.

The site, which is split in to two parts, already has extensive existing hot food facilities, but these do not operate beyond 1.30pm. The factory itself has a "twilight shift", from 3.30-11.30, and the Hotbite machine is already proving particularly popular for staff working this shift.

Stewart Booth from Hotbite said: "Our aim is to set up about 90 Hotbite machines in the North-East in the next three years, which will mean the franchise develops into a pretty substantial business.

"The main benefit of having the machines on a site is that they enable the site owner to provide hot food 24 hours a day without requiring any staff."

Anne Hill, human resources manager at Flymo, said: "We are always looking for new ways of providing the workforce with different food options throughout the day and this is something different.

"Our employment levels do tend to fluctuate seasonally as demand peaks and falls, so it is important that we provide as much choice and flexibility as possible for lunchtime and break options.

" I imagine that the new Hotbite machine will prove very popular.