A STRING of under-threat bakeries in North and East Yorkshire have been sold after a rescue bid was launched.

Scarborough-based Woodhead Bakery went into administration at the end of March, leaving a question mark hanging over the future of its stores and the jobs of hundreds of people.

But the administrators have now announced deals for different parts of the business, which will see Bakery Products Limited buy the firm’s Scarborough branch and 11 other shops, while Coopland And Sons, which already has outlets across East Yorkshire, has acquired 18 stores.

Joint administrator Christopher White, of The P&A Partnership, said: “We were pleased with the level of interest generated in the company’s businesses.

“We are proud to have achieved successful sales of the factory and 29 shops as going concerns, including those in East Yorkshire, and our thanks go to all the employees at Woodhead. It is a credit to them that they carried on working with the administrators during these challenging last few weeks.”

It has yet to be confirmed which individual stores will be taken on by the two firms.

After Woodhead went into administration, 30 of its 310 staff were made redundant but only one shop, in Redcar, has been forced to close.