Three hundred frozen cake makers have had their jobs saved for the second time in six months.

Employees at the former Hibernia Foods factory in Oakesway, Hartlepool now have their third set of bosses after a management buyout rescued the ailing plant.

The workers were thrown in to turmoil last December when Hibernia collapsed with debts of £17.5m.

Staff had a reprieve when receivers found a buyer in Freshbake Foods but this was shortlived when that company also plunged into administration.

Now they will have to put their faith in a management buyout which believes it can save the operation from the threat of redundancy.

PricewaterhouseCooper's Russell Cash, joint administrative receiver, announced last night that the business has been transferred to a new company, Bonne Bouche Limited, which has been set up by a management buy-out team led by Wayne Hitchman, the sales director of Freshbake.

The entire 300 staff members have been transferred to the new company.

Mr Cash said: "We would like to thank the suppliers, customer and especially the employees for their support and co-operation during the last month, which enabled us to continue to trade and achieve a successful sale of the business."

The company produces a range of branded and own-label products for both supermarkets and food service industries.

Mr Hitchman said: "Bonne Bouche Limited will be at the forefront of quality and innovation that will provide our customers with unique and exciting desserts and opportunities to drive real growth in this interesting sector."

The Oakesway factory was one of three in the region, two in Hartlepool and one in Stockton, which was owned by Hibernia.

The three factories were sold off to different buyers.

Kerry Foods bought Hibernia's ready meals business in Brenda Road, Hartlepool, helping to save more than 200 jobs, and Leeds-based Countrystyle Foods bought its site in Preston Farm, Stockton, where 400 people were employed.

Kerry later cut back on 70 of the 200 jobs at Hartlepool.

It was believed that Freshbake's purchase of the Oakesway site would save the jobs of most of the 400 workers there.

But, the Salford-based firm had to call in receivers from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) after unsuccessfully attempting to raise additional finance to fund a restructuring of the business.

PwC was forced to lay off 100 staff when it collapsed.

Freshbake was itself established following a management buy-out from its US parent company, Vlastic Foods International in 2001. At one stage, it employed nearly 1,000 staff at three locations in the UK - Salford, Glasgow and Hartlepool - and had an annual turnover of about £65m.