The Competition Authority has approved the purchase of Erin Foods by Maiden Acquisitions Ltd, the holding company for Batchelors.
The sale of Erin Foods by Premier Foods was required by the authority if it was to agree the purchase by Premier of RHM, the UK plc which sells the Sharwoods, Saxa and Bisto brands here.
The authority stipulated that the "divesting" of the Erin business should occur if the RHM purchase was to go forward, and Brian McManus, a former chief executive with IIB Homeloans, was appointed as trustee to supervise the management of the Erin business pending the sale.
Erin employs some 130 people in Thurles, Co Tipperary. The authority was concerned about the dominance Premier would have in the gravy market in the wake of the RHM purchase if it retained the Erin business.
The authority decided against splitting the Erin business into gravy and non-gravy brands as it feared that this would make the purchase of the Erin business less attractive to prospective purchasers. Maiden Acquisitions is a joint venture between the Cork-based Barry's tea business and Bank of Scotland (Ireland). It was set up in December 2003 to buy Northern Foods-owned Batchelors for some €95 million.
