ONE of the Tyne Valley’s biggest employers has insisted there is no need to panic after shoppers started stockpiling its products due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Prudhoe’s Essity site is the largest of of the company’s six mills, and the company produces a third of toilet rolls sold in the country.

Site manager and UK operations director consumer tissue, Tony Richards, urged consumers to think of their friends and neighbours.

Mr Richards said: “At Prudhoe Mill we make enough tissue paper every ten minutes to stretch from Prudhoe to Newcastle, and supply our supermarket customers with 800 million toilet rolls a year from this one site alone.

“We have tens of millions of loo rolls in our warehouse with similar quantities at our sister sites. And thanks to our robust supply chain I do not anticipate us running out of product anytime soon.

“Problems only arise when shoppers buy far more than they need, which makes it difficult for supermarkets to keep their shelves stocked. I would urge everyone not to overreact and think about others in the community before just filling their trolley.”

Admin employees at the factory are being given the chance to work from home to allow production staff to keep distance from colleagues, minimising the spread of the virus.