HUNDREDS of bakery jobs have been saved after a buyer was found for part of Rathbones Bakeries, which went into administration last month.
Administrators KPMG have reached an agreement to sell bakeries at Middlesbrough, Wigan, Wakefield, Leicester and Peterborough, to two separate buyers.
They declined to name the buyers until contracts are completed.
Richard Hill, of KPMG, said: "The next few days will be crucial as we seek to complete the sales of the Northern and Midlands bakeries.
"We are trying to sell the business as a going concern."
A spokeswoman said the 35 jobs at the Middlesbrough bakery, and hundreds of others around the UK, were more secure thanks to the prospective buyers.
The group, which employs 1,550 staff, went into administration after tough trading conditions and a fire at its factory in Carlisle, Cumbria, in February.
The company, which is based in Walsall, had sales of £100m last year and supplies Tesco and Morrisons.
It sold a bakery in Yarm Road, Stockton, to Warburtons earlier this year.
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