CARLISLE’S flood-hit McVitie’s biscuit factory should be back in full production by the end of the month.

And bosses from its Turkish parent company have praised the efforts of the workforce in getting it up and running.

Flood waters brought by Storm Desmond entered the site on December 6, causing “substantial damage” to electrical equipment and ovens.

Since then, 540 tonnes of debris have been cleared.

The company expects a return to normal production “very soon”, with the iconic Carr’s table water biscuits back by the end of the month.

The baking of McVitie’s ginger nuts, which have been in short supply nationally, has already resumed at the rate of 250,000 every hour.

The factory is owned by United Biscuits, which was acquired by the Turkish food group Yildiz Holdings in 2014.

Ali Ulker, vice chairman of Yildiz, visited the site on Friday.

He said: “I am very proud to witness first-hand the speedy turnaround of the factory getting operations back up and running.

“A big thanks goes to our employees for their tireless efforts to meet our consumer needs and get biscuits back into production.”

Factory general manager Mike Heaney added: “Since the floods we have seen extensive coverage in the media around the ‘biscuit shortage’, with consumers wanting our products back on shelves as quickly as possible.

“This encouragement has kept our teams going.

“It’s been awful not to be baking biscuits, so we thank everyone that has helped us along the way to get production back up and running.”

Meanwhile, McVitie’s workers have voted in favour of accepting changes to over-time, Sunday and bank holiday pay.

Under the package, over-time payments for working Sundays will be cut from double time to time-and-a-half while bank holidays – also paid at double time – will be treated as normal working days with no extra pay.

Workers will still get a day off in lieu for bank holidays, however, and the Christmas and New Year period has been excluded from the proposals.

The company tabled proposals to change contracts last year, only for its plans to be rejected in a ballot.

It drew up a new package following talks with unions and had threatened to impose changes if workers rejected them again.

A total of 322 voted to accept the changes, and only 83 against.

The GMB Union, which represents the bulk of the workforce, had recommended that the package be accepted

The factory is one of Carlisle’s biggest employers with 640 permanent staff and up to 300 seasonal workers. It produces 80,000 tonnes of biscuits each year under the McVitie’s, Jacob’s, Carr’s and Crawford’s brands, plus supermarket own-label products.