McVitie’s ginger nuts are to return to the shelves after production was halted three months ago by flooding at a factory in Carlisle.

United Biscuits, the owner of the McVitie’s, Carr’s and Jacob’s brands, has told its retail clients, who include Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda, that stocks of ginger nuts would be available from mid-March.

“McVitie’s ginger nuts will start to appear on shelves from around 11-12 March, but there will be fluctuations dependent on the retailer,” a spokeswoman for the company said.

Most supermarkets have been out of stock of McVitie’s ginger nuts and Carr’s water biscuits since January and were running low on custard creams and bourbons after the firm’s factory in Caldewgate was inundated with 5ft of floodwater on 5 December.

The Carlisle-based facility is the second biggest biscuit factory in Europe, supplying the UK and other countries around the world.

The company relaunched production of its McVitie’s Gold bars, which were made on the upper floors of the factory, in January after five weeks of cleaning and repair work. Four of the factory’s eight ovens are now up and running and ginger nuts will be the first of the main biscuit lines ready to hit shelves. The factory should soon be producing 7m ginger nuts a day to meet demand.

Bourbons, custard creams and boasters should follow a couple of weeks later. The last biscuit back into production, most likely by the end of March, will be Carr’s water biscuits, as their special brick ovens take longer to reheat.

The water biscuits are only made in Carlisle because United Biscuits has said it needs to use the local spring water and the factory’s brick ovens in order to get the right taste and texture.

Mark Taylor, manufacturing director for United Biscuits, said production had resumed more quickly than expected. “We’re delighted with progress,” he said. “We started slowly to iron out any niggles and we’re not at full speed yet.”

About 400 staff, contractors and suppliers are now working at the factory, about half its usual workforce.

United Biscuits caused a stir in January when it was forced to admit that it had been unable to find alternative production facilities after the flood and supplies of some popular biscuits were running out. It placed newspaper adverts in January headed: “Flooding in water biscuit factory. Oh the irony.”

The ad said the factory had suffered significant damage and the heavy rain had “taken its toll on our community”.

The factory was also hit by flooding in 2005 and only reopened after a £1m government grant. Taylor said United Biscuits was talking to other manufacturers as far afield as Thailand and Cockermouth, nearby in Cumbria, about ways to improve the Carlisle factory’s flood defences.