The Northern Ireland-based Tayto Group has acquired the Jonathan Crisp brand, further adding to its snack empire.
The deal for the upmarket crisp brand was a genuine 'credit crunch' takeover, after Staffordshire brand owner Natural Crisps ran into difficulties. It confirm's Tayto's position as the third biggest operator in the UK market, behind Walkers owner Pepsico and KP and McCoy's owner UB.
Tayto bought the Golden Wonder brand in 2006, Welsh-based Real Crisps in 2007 and Red Mill Snack Foods company, supplier of Mr Porky pork scratchings, last year.
The Jonathan Crisp brand is self-styled as the 'crisp for snobs', with caricature-type illustrations featured on each pack.
John McQuaid, group sales director of Tayto Group said, "This is the fourth in a series of strategic purchases we have undertaken in the last three years and it has put us in a strong position to continue our growth through further acquisitions.
"As this was a 'distress purchase', we had to move quickly to snap-up the brand and, unusually for these circumstances, completed the deal in just one week.
"We hope to emulate the success we have had with Golden Wonder, also at the point of collapse three years ago when we bought it and which we are now successfully re-building as a brand in Great Britain."
Production for Jonathan Crisp is currently carried out by Glennan's. also based in Staffordshire.
McQuaid added:"In addition to our core line of Tayto products, we have a wide range of other crisps and snacks including tortillas and pork scratchings. We believe that this diversity of products, which allows us to be a one-stop-shop for many of our customers, puts us in a unique position."