THOUSANDS of pounds of fresh and frozen food was ruined after fridges and freezers broke down at Tesco in Little Lever.

Equipment in the £4 million supermarket, at the corner of Lever Street and Crossley Street which opened last October, malfunctioned on Friday.

It meant the majority of fresh and frozen food in the 29,500 square ft store was ruined and could not be sold.

Melissa Livesey, a manager at Tesco, has apologised to customers.

Writing on the 'We Love Tesco Little Lever' Facebook page on Saturday morning, she said: “Very sorry to have to tell you that last night all of our fridges and freezers went down again.

“Although every effort was made to save as much stock as possible, we have lost the majority of our fresh and frozen food.

“I know that this is extremely frustrating for you, and we are all devastated in store that this has happened again.

“I am very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused any of our customers yesterday.

“Until we fix this issue please bear with us, and I assure you every effort is being made in store to fix this as quickly as possible.”

It is believed to be the second time this month that the fridges and freezers at the supermarket have stopped working.

Shoppers and staff were quick to comment on the post and thanked staff at Tesco Little Lever for making them aware of what had happened.

Brenda Abbott commented: “Very sorry to hear this. This all seems very strange twice in one month.”

Karen Richmond, who works at the Farnworth Tesco store, said: “Awful news for you all, knowing how hard you all worked to get the store back. Any help needed please ask our store Farnworth for support.”

Wendy Kerrigan said: “At least people on this group won’t have a wasted journey today if they need fridge or freezer goods.”

Melanie Kenny added: “Thanks for letting us know — much appreciated at a time when you are probably all running around like lunatics trying to get organised.”

Linzi Haughton-Brown said: “Devastating news — we will not be beaten."

A Tesco spokesman described the amount of stock lost as 'minimal' and confirmed the fault was fixed within 24 hours. 

He said: “We had some issues with our chillers and freezers at the weekend.  

"As soon as the problem was identified, as much stock as possible was moved to chilled areas in other parts of the store.

"Our colleagues worked hard to get the chillers back up and running as soon as possible, so a minimal amount of stock was lost. We’d like to thank our customers for their patience.”