Dr Tony O'Reilly has increased his stake in Heinz, the company of which he is chairman and chief executive. He now has shares worth $316 million (or £218 million), the US firm said in a statement yesterday.

Already the largest individual shareholder, with 1.7 per cent of Heinz, the company said he exercised share options to buy 1,125,000 shares on December 12th. He made a gain of almost $35 million on the transaction, of which he used $10 million to increase his stake in the company, gave $5 million to the American Ireland Fund charity and used some of the rest to pay taxes on the deal.

The move follows an announcement at the beginning of the month that Dr O'Reilly would hand over the reins as chief executive to company president Mr William Johnson on April 30th. He will remain as chairman to 2002.

Two weeks ago Heinz said it was on track to turn out "excellent" year earnings. It projected volume growth improving significantly in the third quarter due to new marketing programmes.