Jobs at Sunfresh Bakers are safe, after bosses bought the business out of administration.

Directors Stephen and Mark Taylor bought its assets and goodwill, safeguarding 140 jobs, and will now trade as Taylors the Bakers.

The Ashton-under-Lyne firm in Lancashire, which makes oven-bottom muffins, went into administration at the end of last month and insolvency firm MCR was tasked with finding a buyer.

A spokeswoman for Taylors the Bakers said it had worked hard to secure the continuity of supply from suppliers and that it had the support of its major supermarket clients, who wanted to continue to buy the “quality of product and service synonymous with Sunfresh Bakers”.

She added: “We are proud to have saved 140 jobs and this strong dedicated workforce are relieved that all the speculation about jobs and the future of the business is over and for them now it’s business as usual." The company had to make 30 workers redundant earlier this year due to a downturn in trade.

Sunfresh Bakers’ most recent accounts in November 2008, filed at Companies House, showed a pre-tax loss of £365,337 and net liabilities of more than £200,000.

The family firm was started 30 years ago by Stan Taylor and is now run by sons Stephen and Mark. After many years as a retailer and wholesaler, the firm is now a purely wholesale business, supplying supermarkets, schools, hospitals and sandwich shops nationwide, and making more than 40 million oven-bottom muffins a year - bread rolls with a blackened ring on top.