HUNDREDS of factory workers celebrated yesterday after a £7m investment secured their jobs.

Electrolux unveiled an upgrade of its plant in Spennymoor, County Durham, where it will produce a new range of cookers destined for the UK market.

The cash, which includes more than £1m from regional development agency One NorthEast, safeguards the future of the factory and its 600 workers.

It also underpins hundreds more in the regional supply chain.

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodma, visiting the factory yesterday, said: "It is a massive capital investment and investment in people, training and skills, and it proves to me there is a very strong future for manufacturing in this part of the world. And very importantly it gives security to the 600 jobs here."

Gerry Hunter, regional officer for the Amicus union, said: "This is essential for the factory. It is good to see British people making British cookers and not work being sent overseas."

The investment followed a review by Electrolux of all its European operations.

The group closed a refrigerator factory at Spennymoor six years ago, shedding 650 jobs.

There were fears the review would see the cooker operation follow suit.

The group's Flymo factory, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has also benefited from the review.

Electrolux is expected to announce today that this will produce a range of lawn mowers that had previously been made in Sweden.

But jobs are under threat at a distribution depot in the town.

White goods retailer Dixons yesterday confirmed it is looking to cut about 16 per cent of the workforce in its distribution centres, which employ 2,400 staff.

Its County Durham warehouse delivers electrical goods to stores and customers in the Dixons, Currys and PC World chains.

Up to 150 more jobs could go across the region, as Ready Mix Concrete moves to cut ten per cent of its workforce.

US firm Cemex bought the company earlier this year and is planning to lay off 750 staff out of 7,000 in the UK.

It said the redundancies would be across the board, but its call centre in Thornaby, near Stockton, would not be affected.

Elsewhere in the region, Hargreaves, the UK's largest aggregates transport company, announced further expansion at its headquarters in Esh Winning, near Durham.

The group, which employs 350 people in the region, is taking on more drivers after buying the Monckton Coke and Chemical Company, based near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, in a £25m deal.

And there was more jobs joy in North Yorkshire, as the first call centre for Scarborough was announced.

The operation will create 40 jobs in August, rising to 80 by the end of the year.