The boss of a firm hit by firebugs today revealed the cost of the attack will be more than £1 million… but vowed that he will not be beaten by the thugs.

Craig Knott has pledged that his firm will be up and running again and is paying his employees’ wages while the print finishing company is out of action because of the arson attack at the weekend.

The costs of repairing the building and replacing machinery and work in progress, as well as £75,000 of lost stock, does paint a gloomy financial picture for PFF Presentation Products.

Its warehouses were gutted in the fire which took hold at the single-storey factory in Dockfield Road, Shipley, on Saturday morning.

The extent of the damage has left the premises uninhabitable. Operations have come to a complete stand-still and the firm’s 18 staff have been put on temporary leave with full pay while insurers investigate the site.

Owner Mr Knott said he was now looking for an alternative location to run the firm from.

He said: “We have to move to continue because it isn’t safe, the fire destroyed the roof. It’s going to take six months to clean up.

“I lease the building and it will be the owners’ insurance company who deal with the damage to the building. We can’t operate out of the building and it will have to be re-built. Until we get everything sorted I’m stuck in limbo.

“The warehouses and storage area has just been completely wiped out and it’s affected the majority of machinery, either directly from the heat of the fire or by debris falling from it.”

Mr Knott has owned the business for two years. He said the firm would remain in the area.

“We have to stay local purely from the staff point of view. We’ve got an excellent group of individuals who work here. I don’t want to lose any of them. They have all gone home, trading has completely come to a stop, but it’s our intention to get up and running hopefully sometime next week.

“We do a broad spectrum of products, turnover was £1million last year and we made a profit. It’s been a very positive company with year-on-year growth so to be hit by this is a nightmare.”

More than 50 firefighters tackled the blaze at around 6.45am on Saturday. Staff were inside the building at the time as the flames spread to the warehouses from pallets outside.

Police suspect the firm was the subject of one of a number of arson attacks in the area in the last few days. Fire crews were called to four separate skips and commercial waste bins on fire in the area on Friday night.

Detectives reacted to the fire at PFF by arresting three men from Baildon, aged 17, 19 and 35 who were released on police bail pending further enquiries. A 14-year-old boy, also of Baildon, was arrested and released without charge.

Police are investigating CCTV footage from the surrounding area for further clues.