THE three members of the McCann family on the board of fresh produce distributor Fyffes have substantially increased their shareholdings after exercising share options.

The chairman of Fyffes, Mr Neil McCann, has bought another 675,000 shares at an option price of 55p each - a total of £371,250 and less than half the value of the shares on the market where they are trading at 115p.

He now owns 730,049 shares, although the bulk of his stake in Fyffes is held through Balkan Investments which has 25.1 million shares. His total shareholding in Fyffes is now worth just short of £30 million.

Both of Mr McCann's sons, the deputy chairman Carl and chief executive David, have also increased their stakes in the company. Both, however, have held the shares they bought under option and did not sell into the market.

Carl McCann bought 600,000 shares at the option price of 55p to take his stake in the company to 1.27 million shares worth just under £1.5 million while David McCann bought 225,000 at 55p and a further 12,500 shares at another option price of 91p to take his total stake in the company to over 376,000 shares worth £443,000.

Another director, Mr Roland Benner, has bought shares at option prices but has made a profit by selling shares into the market. Mr Benner bought 135,000 shares at 55p, 7,500 shares at 91p and another 30,000 shares at 100p. He later sold 150,972 shares into the market at 115p.

This meant that he made a cash profits of over £62,000 on the transaction, as well as increasing his stake in the company by 22,000 shares. He now holds 7.58 million Fyffes shares worth £8.7 million and, with his 2.7 per cent stake, is the second biggest non-institutional shareholder.