THE takeover of 18 small Safeway stores by Waitrose is very good news for the Devizes-based bakers that provides the company's high-quality cakes, pastries and tarts.

The acquisition of the stores in the Safeway chain, which was taken over by Morrison's last month, will mean a boost in business for Hayden's Bakeries, which moved to Hopton Industrial Estate from Marlborough seven years ago.

It will mean that the 290 jobs at Hayden's are secure and opens up the possibility for more recruitment at the plant.

The business was set up by local baker Chris Hayden in 1976, operating out of a bakery shop in Marlborough High Street. It then expanded into a factory in London Road. It moved to Devizes in 1996. In August 1999 it was sold to bakery giant Rank Hovis McDougall before being acquired by the smaller The Real Good Food Company plc in May last year.

Waitrose, with whom Hayden's has been trading for more than 20 years, is by far its biggest customer and the Devizes plant prepares and cooks all its fruit flans and tarts, Danish pastries, doughnuts and croissants for its 147 stores across the country. Hayden's also provides items like Yum-Yums, a kind of plaited doughnut, for Marks and Spencer.

Waitrose's increase in size will substantially increase the turnover at the Hopton plant, although managing director Dennis Scott says he does not expect a huge increase in the current 290-strong workforce, up 50 from this time last year.

He said: "We have already begun to look at our investment programme. We are ordering new equipment and have plans to extend the building here. At the moment our operation is very labour-intensive but with new equipment we can increase our output by 50 to 60 per cent, but the net number of staff will stay the same."