BAXTERS Food Group is expanding through the purchase of a vinegar plant in Staffordshire.
The Moray business did not reveal how much it is paying for the Burntwood site, which specialises in supplying private label, wholesale and food service products.
Japanese firm Nakano agreed to sell the facility, which employs 58 people, to alleviate competition concerns following its £41 million acquisition of the vinegar and pickles business of Premier Foods Group in June last year.
As a result of the deal with Baxters, the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) has decided not to refer the Nakano and Premier Foods deal to the Competition Commission.
The OFT said it had consulted publicly on the proposals, including the suitability of Baxters as the buyer, and had not received any concerns regarding the transaction.
Yesterday, Ali Nikpay, OFT senior director and the decision maker in the case, said: "The OFT was concerned that prices of unbranded malt and spirit vinegar would rise as a result of Nakano's acquisition of Premier's vinegar business.
"The sale of the Burntwood plant to Baxters restores pre-existing levels of competition in the manufacture and supply of these vinegars to UK customers."
Family-owned Baxters is best known for its soups and preserves, but in November 2011 it bought the canned meat pie brand Fray Bentos. Princes, which had bought Fray Bentos from Premier, sold the brand after OFT concerns.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article