THE managing director of a factory that was the scene of a huge blaze plans to have production up and running again in less than a week.

Fire ripped through the Vale of Mowbray factory at Leeming Bar, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, at the weekend, following an explosion in an oven.

But round-the-clock efforts following Saturday's fire have led to a short-term reorganisation of production to allow the firm to complete as much of its work as possible.

Managing director John Gatenby said the amazing revival of the company's fortunes also meant that there would be no job losses among the 190 staff.

He said: "There is only one production line that we can't get going again, but we have two other production sites besides the one that burned down."

Several workers have been called back in and more are expected today.

Mr Gatenby said the company was likely to be up to 95 per cent production by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

"It was an absolute disaster, it was just devastation for the company," he said.

"But there has been a lot of support, with people willing to help 24 hours a day.

"There are no fears about job losses, we are just working on getting the company going again as quickly as we can."

The sausage and pork pie maker was saved by a management buy-out seven years ago and is one of the major employers in the area.