JUST over a week ago Tony Blair stood before an invited audience in his Sedgefield constituency to speak of the phoenix of the Filtronic factory rising from the ashes of Fujitsu.

Yesterday the phoenix mark two emerged, ironically from the ashes of the former Rothmans cigarette factory in Spennymoor.

The Task Force set up to cushion the blow of November's closure announcement by British American Tobacco (BAT) was justifiably delighted with the outcome of their seven-month enterprise.

Redevelopment group Industrial Estates Scotland (IES) have bought the 27-acre premises for an undisclosed fee, which it hopes will lead to the creation of 400 new jobs.

The firm already has a stake in Sedgefield Borough having bought the former premises of Underground Mining Machinery (UMM) in Newton Aycliffe four years ago.

They set themselves a target then of creating 300 jobs. A total of 291 jobs are now housed on the site, so as IES explained, what it aims to do is deliver.

Chairman Nigel Jowett said: "Our experience over 15 years says we can create 400 jobs, and possibly even more.

"We base these figures on a target of one job per 1,000 square feet of office space

"We will be utilising the knowledge and experience of Rothmans management team in making a success of the what will become the Rothmans Business Centre.

"Although we can't yet say exactly what type of firms will be moving in, we are hoping to take advantage of the e-commerce bandwagon, and to market it."

Of the former 464 staff at Rothmans, the efforts of the Task Force has seen a resettlement success rate of around 80 per cent, with 365 taking new jobs, retiring or finding some other form of settled future.

The new owners hope to have its operation up and running in the Spring of 2001, and the target IES has set itself is a 30 per cent take-up after 12 months rising to 80 per cent after three years.

Head of manufacturing operations in the North-East for BAT, Tony Cain, said credit should go to everyone involved with the Task Force for the successful end result.

"Our manufacturing at Spennymoor ceased on June 21 and on June 22 we exchanged contracts on the deal with IES," he said.

"If you had asked me what would have been the ideal scenario back in November, then this would have come close.

"People who thought that a big multinational company would just walk in and drop 500 jobs back into the economy would not have been realistic.

"As we have seen in the region, and in the borough of Sedgefield itself, the multinationals can be here one day and gone the next."