One of the region's most loved pie firms which employs more than 200 people has collapsed into administration.

Here is everything we know so far...

Read more: More than 200 jobs at risk as North East pork pie firm goes into administration

The Northern Echo:

What's happened?

The well-known Vale of Mowbray company, which is based at Leeming Bar near Northallerton, has appointed administrators.

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

When did staff find out?

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 as the firm could no longer continue.

Is there an official statement?

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

It said: "Martyn Pullin, Mark Hodgett and David Shambrook of specialist business advisory firm FRP were appointed as Joint Administrators to Vale of Mowbray Limited on 28 September 2022.

"Vale of Mowbray is a historic business that traces its roots to the Vale of Mowbray Brewery, which was opened in 1795.

"The family-owned business, which is based in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, began making pork pies in 1928 and has since established itself as the UK’s leading pork pie brand.

"The business has experienced significant financial challenges in recent years due to rising raw material input prices, increasing energy costs and sector-wide recruitment challenges.

"A marketing process was conducted to attract fresh investment into the business but, without any viable offers and without the resources to continue trading, the directors have appointed administrators and closed the business.

"The business employed 219 staff.

Read more: Vale of Mowbray LIVE: Leeming Bar pork pie firm goes into administration

The Northern Echo:

"On appointment, 171 roles were made redundant.

"The remaining staff have been retained in the short term as the Joint Administrators wind up the operations of the business and move towards an asset sale of its two freehold manufacturing sites in Leeming Bar, plant and machinery, as well as intellectual property.

Martyn Pullin, Partner at FRP and Joint Administrator of Vale of Mowbray Limited, said: “The Vale of Mowbray was a proud family business with a loved brand that has been synonymous with pork pies for generations.

"But the increasingly difficult trading conditions being experienced by many energy and labour intensive manufacturing businesses have ultimately led to the business’ closure.

“We are urgently calling on any interested parties to come forward. In the meantime, we are preparing to wind up the business’ operations and move towards an asset sale in line with our statutory obligations.

"We are on site and supporting staff, through what is an extremely challenging time, as we support claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”

Are they still open?

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

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

Have they been struggling financially? 

12 months ago, 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.

"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.”

What is the mood?

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 been appearing across social media in the hours immediately after the staff meeting was held on Wednesday.

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