Northern Foods today said it had agreed to sell its Batchelors brand of baked beans to a consortium including Barry's Tean and he Bank of Scotland for about €92 million (£66.8 million).
The Hull-based group said it was selling Northern Foods (Ireland) and its subsidiaries to Maiden Acquisition, a new company formed by Barry's Tea and Bank of Scotland Ireland. The Irish arm of Northern Foods owns Batchelors and food importing group Beck Smith.
Northern bought Batchelors, which was formerly part of British soup maker Batchelors - now owned by Unilever - in 1986 from previous owners Beecham for £13 million. It took over Beck Smith in 1991 for £1.5 million.
Batchelors is Ireland's number one baked bean brand and also produces tinned vegetables. Batchelors and Beck Smith also make and distribute Irish orange juice brand Sqeez and tinned food labels Amigo, Picnic and Lustre.
In addition, they distribute the Green Giant vegetable brand, Old El Paso Mexican food products and Fox's Biscuits on behalf of the manufacturers of those products.
Northern is offloading non-core businesses to focus on its core brands in the British market such as Goodfella's Pizzas and Dalepak frozen foods.
A Northern spokesman said there would be no redundancies as part of the deal. Batchelors and Beck Smith employ 280 people.
PA