Cold storage business Norish has acquired East Kent Cold Storage Company, a subsidiary of Dunloe Ewart, for £450,000 sterling (€734,334). Mr Paul Byrne, chief executive of Norish, said the acquisition gives the company "a strategically located cold storage facility closer to the Channel Tunnel and further strengthens our geographic coverage in the UK".

East Kent generated a pre-tax profit of £102,809 sterling in 1999 on net assets of £405,727. This would have given Dunloe Ewart a gross annual yield of more than 25 per cent. However, Dunloe Ewart would have had running costs which would have considerably reduced the yield. The group gained the storage company as part of the Ewart portfolio and keeping it was not part of its strategy, according to industry sources.

Norish now operates a network of five cold stores in England and Wales. In Ireland, it has a cold storage interest.

During 1999, Norish acquired a leading UK cocoa and coffee warehousing group, Belvedere Warehousing, which operates eight warehouses specialising in commodities.