A NORTH-EAST bakery is back operating at its old home 17 months after the building was destroyed in a mystery blaze.

Peters Cathedral Bakers had to transfer production to a disused food factory in Peterlee after the fire gutted its long-standing production base and head office on the Dragonville Industrial Estate in April last year.

The family-run company, which was started in a shop in Belmont, lost all its production for about a month - its 71 shops across the region were forced to close temporarily - but it managed to quickly equip its temporary base and resume production of its cakes, savouries and bread.

Despite the upheaval, the company did not make any of its 569 employees redundant, 134 of whom work at the bakery.

The bakery has been rebuilt and re-equipped with new machinery at a cost of about £8.5m, and production has now resumed following fine-tuning of the equipment.

Managing director Richard Knowles said: "The fire all seems like so long ago, it is 17 months.

"While Peterlee was not an ideal situation, people got used to it, but coming back here was almost as traumatic as moving there.

"We have had to stand still for 17 months while our competitors have had a chance to move forwards.

"Now we are up and running here we can look to the future. We are starting with a re-branding programme in our retail group. There will be retail expansion and we have an ambitious new production programme."

Mr Knowles, who said the cause of the blaze was still unknown, said the new building had a sprinkler system.