A RENOWNED pork pie factory which collapsed into administration four months ago has been sold, with hopes growing that food production could return to the region.

Administrators FRP sad that they had secured a buyer for both Vale of Mowbray  factories on the Leeming Bar site, near Bedale - and a buyer had also been found for the pork pie and scotch egg production machinery.

FRP refused to reveal any further information, but there has been speculation that a major national food company, whose products include pork pies, has been involved in the sale. The firm did not respond to requests for a comment when contacted.

The community was left stunned when the company revealed at the end of September last year that administrators had been called in.

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More than 200 people lost their jobs when the family run firm closed just months after a major £4m expansion into a new scotch eggs production line.

Administrators said the business, which originally opened as a brewery in 1795, with pork pie production beginning in the 1920s, had experienced “significant financial challenges” due to rising raw material prices, increasing energy costs and sector-wide recruitment challenges.

After months of uncertainty when two auction dates to sell off machinery through auctions at the plant were cancelled, administrators Martyn Pullin, Mark Hodgett and David Shambrook made an announcement this week.

They said: “Following the appointment as joint administrators of Vale of Mowbray Limited on 28 September 2022, FRP, we are pleased to have secured a buyer for both freehold manufacturing sites in Leeming Bar. Alongside, a buyer has also been secured for the plant and machinery. Further details of the sites’ future use will be announced in due course.”

The news has been a huge boost for the community, who feared the site would be cleared for housing.

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North Yorkshire County Council leader Councillor Carl Les, who ran the well known A1 services at the Leeming Motel just up the road from the factory for many years, said: “The Vale of Mowbray premises and operations, bacon factory, hams, and latterly pork pies, has been a key part of the local business scene for as long as I can remember.

“Our own business at Leeming Bar bought many boxes of excellent sliced back bacon over the years to serve to travellers on the A1.

It was a really huge disappointment to many, not least the workforce, when the business got into financial difficulties last year.

“Leeming Bar is recognised as a major food cluster in Yorkshire, with excellent transport links to the rest of the country, and it will be good if the sites and the machinery come back into food production. Let`s hope that is the intention of these two deals.”