Proper saves Fairings

Production resumed at the

Furniss biscuit factory in Redruth last month after a fellow Cornish firm saved it from closure.

One hundred people lost their jobs when the traditional biscuit maker went into administration in June, but 20 of those staff have now returned, thanks to pasty supplier Proper Cornish buying the firm as part of its strategy to become a diversified food company, to be renamed the Proper Cornish Food Company.

Commercial director Jane Flowerdew said: "We want to grow the company organically and with acquisitions. [Furniss] is a good fit. It's a very old Cornish company."

Proper Cornish md Phil Ugalde said Furniss had been trading for 120 years and it would have been a shame to see the iconic Fairings biscuit brand disappear. "I remember my grandmother buying Fairings biscuits for me and they really are the original Cornish biscuit," he said.

Proper Cornish took over Furniss on August 14 and immediately consolidated the range from hundreds of variants to a core offering of Fairings, gingerbread, shortbread and oat crunchies. It vowed to turn it into a profitable company within six months and said it planned to make the brand national and even international. The two companies will be run separately.