ABOUT 400 workers were facing the threat of redundancy for a second time last night after receivers were called into a North-East food company.

Freshbake Foods, in Hartlepool, has gone into receivership less than six months after buying the former Hibernia Foods factory at Oakesway in the town - and it was confirmed last night that at least 100 job losses were expected.

Workers face the fresh redundancy misery only months after they believed their jobs had been saved.

The receivers said they hoped trading would continue until a buyer was found for the business, but they would have to make an initial 100 job losses to continue trading.

Workers at the frozen desserts factory had the threat of redundancy hanging over them at Christmas when previous owners Hibernia Foods went into receivership after amassing debts of £17.5m.

The 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 and it was believed that Freshbake's purchase of the Oakesway site would save the jobs of most of the 390 workers there.

But Freshbake called in receivers from PricewaterhouseCoopers last night.

Joint receiver, Ian Green, said: "Over the last few weeks, the directors have been attempting to raise additional finance to fund a restructuring of the business.

"Unfortunately, this has not proved successful.

"We will be holding talks with suppliers and customers over the course of the next few days to seek their support to allow trading to continue while a purchaser is sought.

"We will also keep the workforce informed of our strategy in the days ahead."

A PricewaterhouseCoopers spokeswoman added: "We do anticipate some redundancies in the Hartlepool division.

"Unfortunately these are necessary to keep the business going."