WORKERS at one of Tynedale's largest employers are set to return next week.

The Egger chipboard factory in Hexham will restart limited production on Monday, May 11 after partially shutting down the factory at the beginning of April due to concerns over the coronavirus crisis.

Andrew Sanderson, plant manager at Egger, said the situation would be continue to be monitored.

He said: "Preparations are underway to safely restart production, in a limited capacity, at our Hexham plant on Monday 11th May.

"Like most companies, we continue to monitor, review and adapt to the changing situation during the coronavirus crisis, with the health and safety of our employees, customer and stakeholders being our top priority.

"As before, extensive measures are being implemented across the site to ensure that we operate safely within the Government’s guidelines.

"We have maintained supply to our customers on the ‘essential’ government list throughout the crisis, and have seen a number of our customers, partially opening or proposing to re-open in the coming weeks.

"We are of course keen to support them in doing this.

"Employees have been informed and taken off the furlough scheme. We’d like to thank all of our employees for their flexibility, dedication and understanding during these unprecedented times".