MORE than 40 jobs in Oxford are in the balance as administrators seek a buyer for an insolvent bakery group.

D&G Food Group called in administrators, who put its four bakery companies, including the Queen of Hearts in Littlemore, up for sale.

Administrators have sold Tredinnick Fine Foods in Devon and Aldreds the Baker in Derbyshire as going concerns, saving 100 jobs, and are hoping to complete the sale of Queen of Hearts next week.

The fourth bakery in Plymouth closed with the loss of 50 jobs.

Administrator Darren Brookes, of corporate recovery experts Milner Boardman & Partners, said: “We can confirm that we are continuing to explore options for selling Queen of Hearts (UK), with a view to securing the futures of a further 40 jobs.”

He said the bakery in Sandy Lane was still working as normal, producing boxed cakes for stores such as Waitrose.

Trade magazine British Baker reported that former Roberts Bakery chairman Graham March, who headed D&G, was keen to buy Queen of Hearts.

Queen of Hearts, which once had shops in Summertown and Headington, has changed hands several times in the past few years and was acquired last year by D&G from Irish group McCambridge, which had bought it from administrators.

D&G announced plans to expand the business’s customer base after improving efficiency, but ran into trouble during the recession.

Milner Boardman were appointed on June 3 and shut West of England Bakeries in Plymouth, making 50 of its staff redundant, while another six jobs were lost when D&G’s head office closed.

An advert in the Financial Times when the business was put up for sale reported that Queen of Hearts had a turnover of £4m.

The Queen of Hearts sold its shop and cafe in Headington about five years ago.

The closure of the shop in Summertown at about the same time was blamed by traders on the arrival of Marks & Spencer.

business@oxfordmail.co.uk