Thirty jobs have been saved at O’Donnell’s Bakery in Ireland after two employees bought it out of liquidation.

The company got into financial difficulty after Christmas, so head baker Mark Kelly and head of sales Andrew McElhinney stumped up the money for their business as a going concern.

The family bakery in Laghey employs 15 full- and part-time bakery workers and 15 salesmen and van drivers, making mainly morning goods and bread. The new owners aim to turn over between £1.8m and £2.1m this year. "We have a few big contracts in the pipeline," said Kelly.

O’Donnell’s is now working on some new confectionery items for launch later this year.