MACHINERY has been stripped out of a doomed Barnsley bakery following its closure and 123 employees losing their jobs.
Employees hung up their aprons for the final time as La Baguette Doree, on Carlton Industrial Estate, closed for good on August 30.
The closure was announced in June and workers were despondent and morale was low, with most saying they would 'sit it out' until the closure.
The positions made redundant included managerial staff, administrative staff and shop floor employees.
Workers at the bakery, which was part of the Fletcher's Group, were offered redeployment to sister companies in Sheffield and London but many said it wasn't a viable option.
Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis said the closure heralded the biggest single job loss in the two-and-a-half years or so since he became the MP for the area.
Sam Vickers, from the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, blamed the closure on the Barnsley bakery's sister company, London-based Grain D'Or, losing a lucrative contract with Tesco worth £16million.
The bakery was set up in 1991 as a bake-off site for Marks and Spencer frozen baguettes.
Over two decades, it built up a national distribution business supplying retail customers, in-store bakeries and food service customers.
