Bathroom and kitchen manufacturer Dornbracht had been forced to suspend production after a fire ripped through part of its factory complex in Iserlohn, Germany.

The blaze, which was caused by a lightning strike, began in a neighbouring building and spread to one of the company's five production buildings. The electroplating area and paintshop have both been completely destroyed and one of two assembly plants was also damaged.

"For safety reasons during the firefighting and following clean-up activities, we had to close down the factory for a time," Holger Struck, Dornbracht's head of brand and corporate communications, told kbbreview. "However shipping and receiving have already begun working again. Production will restart on Monday morning (August 3) but step-by-step and electroplating will be outsourced for some time."

Struck said any impact on deliveries and distribution in the UK was currently under investigation. "As we didn't have access to our IT systems for several days we've only just started analysing the status of pending orders and will inform our customers accordingly," he explained. "There will definitely be an influence on availability of some parts of our product programme. For some special finishes we might experience limited availability for some time.

"Our UK customers have been informed by our office in Coventry. Dornbracht UK will keep all customers posted on delivery status of orders and product availability."