ALMOST 300 people were facing redundancy in the North-East last night after the last Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) dairy was forced to close.

Although speculation was high that the base in Blaydon, North Tyneside could be saved, talks over a possible sale suddenly collapsed yesterday, with the majority of the 290 staff released. The rest will be made redundant on Monday if an alternative buyer is not found.

Administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers said it would be continuing efforts over the weekend to sell 19 depots related to the Blaydon dairy, with the future of a further 329 jobs in the balance. The dairy also supplies 288 farms in the North-East and North Yorkshire, which have not be paid for last month’s deliveries. The closure of the Blaydon depot was announced only hours after DFB was forced to shut its dairy in Bridgend, Wales, making its 279 workers redundant. Its DFB base in Lincoln closed earlier in the week, with the loss of 127 jobs. There were urgent efforts to secure a rescue deal for Blaydon with support from One North East and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, but the deal collapsed.

WAITROSE BOOST: Supermarket chain Waitrose yesterday said sales were ten per cent higher than last year after a nationwide advertising campaign boosted its “essential” range.

The trading improvement also reflected weather conditions as branches reported strong sales of salads and other hotweather lines. Waitrose also noted signs of improved consumer confidence, with shoppers prepared to spend a little more on convenience formats after sales of prepared fruit rose by almost 2.5 per cent.

ACCOUNTANCY AWARD: Accountancy student James Dale has been named accountant of the year at the Nigel Wright North-East Accountancy Awards. Mr Dale, 26, works for Anderson Barrowcliff, in Thornaby, near Stockton, and was recently revealed to have finished 19th in one of his exams out of 27,000 students worldwide.