Peters Bakery has been sold to Scarborough-based Coopland & Son in a deal that will save more than 200 jobs.
The move was announced today by Mark Firmin and Howard Smith of accountancy giant KPMG, joint administrators of Peters Bakery, which will see Coopland & Son (Scarborough) take charge of 22 Peters Bakery stores, involving the transfer of 129 store-based staff.
In addition, the bakery business will also take over Peters’ 50,000sq ft factory and headquarters site at Durham’s Dragonville Industrial Estate, transferring 69 members of staff, as well as the north-east bakery’s retail van business, which sells baked goods to companies and industrial estates, transferring a further 10 employees over to Cooplands.
KPMG added that 34 of Peters’ stores will immediately cease trading, resulting in 149 redundancies. Four staff in the distribution operation and two at head office have also been made redundant.
Firmin said: “We undertook negotiations with several interested parties and this deal represents the best outcome for both the creditors and the employees of the company. It means that as much of the business as possible will continue to trade under the new ownership of Cooplands, safeguarding more than 200 jobs.”
In March this year, Cooplands featured at number 12 in British Baker’s BB75 list of high street bakery retailers, by store number, with 126 outlets at the beginning of 2012 – 17 more than in 2011.
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