MORE than 100 jobs will be created by a £6.5m investment in a bakery.

Family-run Warburtons confirmed last night that its first bakery in the Tees Valley would open in September following the multi-million pound refurbishment that has seen the former Rathbones site closed for more than a year.

Warburtons bought the Rathbones bakery, in Yarm Road, Stockton, in October last year.

The site was closed for nine months during the refurbishment and the company is now launching a recruitment drive to have key staff in place by September.

Warburtons employs 3,600 people in 12 bakeries and nine depots, including a bakery at Newburn, Newcastle.

Darren Bond, general manager at Newcastle, said: "We supply all the major supermarket chains and many independent stores across the North-East and Cumbria and demand for our products continues to increase.

"Opening the new bakery in Stockton is a strategic move to ensure that we can satisfy that growing demand and continue to ensure the freshness of our products when they reach our customers."

Warburtons has completed an "almost total rebuild", transforming the building into a modern bakery that will specialise in producing the 800g and 400g seeded batch loaf and fruit products.

The refurbishment has involved major reconstruction of the premises and the installation of £4m-worth of baking equipment.

While the site will open at the end of September, the bakery will not be fully operational until December.

Warburtons expects 20 employees to move from its Newcastle bakery to the new site, leaving 80 posts to fill.

The North is one of Warburton's strongest trading areas and demand has continued to grow.

Rathbones sold the Stockton site only three months before it went into administration.

The group, which employs 1,550 staff, went into administration after difficult trading conditions and a fire at its factory in Carlisle, Cumbria, in February.