Four parties are interested in buying Reox's Irish consumer food division but no frontrunner has emerged in the sale process, the firm's chief executive, Jerry Henchy, said yesterday.

Mr Henchy said the parties would "have to take their time and go through the business" because there were various strands to Breeo, the business being sold.

He said a Reox board meeting to discuss the sale had not yet been organised. Kerry Group has been linked with a bid for Breeo Ireland, which is valued at €160 million.

Reox, the non-milk divisions of Dairygold, was hived off into a separate company in 2006 to grow the business's property, consumer foods division and 4Home DIY businesses.

Reox yesterday reported a pretax profit of €20.6 million for its first full year of trading to September 30th, up from €7.8 million for the nine months to September 30th, 2006. Turnover rose to €343.8 million, compared to €268 million, including turnover from discontinued operations, for the previous accounting period. Breeo Foods had a turnover of €261 million at September 30th.

Reox does not disclose profits for each of its three divisions.

The company's shares are traded in an informal "grey" market, though only 3 per cent of shares have been traded since their launch in July 2006, as most shareholders, many of them farmers, hold their stakes for long periods. Shares were trading at €2.60 yesterday, up from €2 a share at launch.

The company began exploring the possibility of selling Breeo Ireland after it received an unsolicited approach from Dublin private equity firm Ion Equity for the consumer foods division during the summer.