FIRMS in the region can help tackle unemployment by investing money in growing their businesses rather than trying to keep hold of cash, the head of one of the North-East's major employers said.

Greggs chief executive Ken McMeikan was speaking at the official opening of the firm's new £16.5m bakery on Tyneside yesterday, which employs 300 people.

The new Gosforth Park facility, which will operate around the clock, replaces the original Gosforth bakery, which had been Greggs home for 43 years.

The site will supply up to 200 of the firms 1,540 shops each day and is part of what Mr McMeikan called a substantial year for growth at the bakery company.

Last year, the firm reported record pre-tax profits of £52.5m and has continued to invest in growing the business, which employs around 19,000 people in total, this year

In 2011 the firm has refurbished 138 stores and is on track for 80 new openings, including seven this week alone.

In September it opened Greggs Moment, in Newcastle city centre, its first venture into the trendy coffee shop market, which has the potential to be rolled out further.

And Mr McMeikan, whose firm has created around 100 new jobs in the North-East this year, said that in difficult economic times it was important for companies in the region to keep investing where-ever possible in order to generate employment.

Mr McMeikan said: "The worst thing for companies to do right now is try and conserve cash and not invest in the business and create jobs.

"If there is a growth opportunity for the business now they should take it as we have."

"I think as a company based here in the North-East it is very important that the company continues to grow.

"It does send out a message of hope that there are jobs being created right here in the North-East and what people in the region are looking for right now is for businesses to create more opportunity for jobs."

Mr McMeikan believed it took on greater significance with one million plus young people out of work.

He said: "We have record levels of unemployment for 16 to 24-year-olds, what sort of start in life is that.

"My experience of 16 to 24-year-olds is they are desperate to get into work and have high hopes for the future.

"If you don't, as a business, create jobs that hope is going to be dashed, so it is very important."

His predecessor Sir Michael Darrington, who ran Greggs for 26 years, was also present at yesterday's ceremony.

He said: "Obviously I am proud of what everybody in Greggs has achieved."

Also present were members of the Gregg family, which founded the firm in the late 1930s, and local dignitaries.