A famous pork pie firm which employs more than 200 people in the region has gone into administration, it has been confirmed.

The Vale of Mowbray, which is based at Leeming Bar near Northallerton in North Yorkshire, has today announced the administrators have been called in.

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The company, which had been founded in 1795, had gone on to build a huge reputation across the North East, the country and beyond.

According to reports, staff were told the news during a meeting that was held yesterday with company bosses.

The Northern Echo understands that they were then told their jobs would be made redundant. 

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In a statement on Thursday morning, the company confirmed that the administrators had been called in.

It said: "On 28 September 2022, Martyn James Pullin, Mark David Hodgett and David Frederick Shambrook of FRP Advisory Trading Limited were appointed Joint Administrators of Vale of Mowbray Limited (“the Company”).

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"The affairs, business and property of the Company are being managed by its Joint Administrators who act as agents of the Company and without personal liability.

"Martyn James Pullin and David Frederick Shambrook are licensed to act by the Insolvency Practitioners Association.

"Mark David Hodgett is licensed to act by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. All of the Administrators are bound by the Insolvency Code of Ethics."

As of Thursday morning, the Vale of Mowbray website, which claims it was the "UK's Number 1 Pork Pie Brand" was still active.

The Northern Echo: A picture of the website still up and runningA picture of the website still up and running (Image: A picture of the website still up and running)

But it is understood, that those who were working at the site are no longer manning the phones.

The devastating news comes as it was only on this very date, twelve months ago, that Vale of Mowbray bosses launched a recruitment drive.

The company said it had wanted to recruit 65 further staff in order to help it meet its target of producing 80 million pies every single year.

At the time, Mark Gatenby, managing director at Vale of Mowbray, told The Northern Echo: “We’ve seen significant growth over the last 12 months, and this has necessitated growing our team, but more than that we’ve made changes to the way we work to ensure that all of our people have the best possible work life balance.

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"A move to a four-day working week enables the team to enjoy more leisure time, but also provides an opportunity to increase their income if they opt to work overtime.”

But today's devastating news has been met with an outpouring of sadness from workers, past and present, paying tribute to the firm on social media.

Such posts had started appearing across social media in the hours shortly after the staff meeting was held on Wednesday.

Did you work or know somebody affected by this? We'd love to speak to them. Please email newsdesk@nne.co.uk 

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