Real Good Food is to sell Napier Brown, the sugar supplier with sites in Normanton and Stallingborough, to Tereos Group of France for £34m.
The firm says the sale will allow it to move the continuing operation into a net cash position - net debt at September 30 last year was £36.3m - and create the resources for investment for its remaining ‘added-value businesses’, with particular emphasis on the attractive markets of cake decoration, food ingredients and premium bakery.
Napier Brown distributes sugar throughout the UK under two brands, Napier Brown and Whitworths Sugar and operates from two sites at Normanton, West Yorkshire, and Stallingborough, near Hull.
The sugar division was hit by a pricing war with British Sugar and last September it took its dispute to European competition authorities in Brussels.