£300m takeoverof Tyrrells set to create new jobs

The Leominster-based business was snapped up on Monday by Texan company Amplify Snack Brands, which will lead to crisps made locally being sold in the USA.

Tyrrells also already makes popcorn at the Leominster farm it calls home, and has capacity to make more, meaning that Amplify's key product – Skinnypop, a rapidly growing brand of healthy popcorn which is to launch in the UK – is likely to be manufactured for sale in Europe here.

It will be marketed as a healthy product, with Tyrrells existing Poshcorn aimed at people looking for luxury snacks.

Mike Hedges, the Shrewsbury-based managing director of Tyrrells, said: "We now sell about 200 million bags of crisps or snacks a year. We have the fastest growing brand in Europe in the last five years, and we have invested in infrastructure.

"We have spent about £40 million on across our businesses, the majority of which has been in the UK, we have doubled our equipment in Herefordshire, and four years ago built a popcorn plant there.

"We built a site that is not fully utilised, and having the fastest growing popcorn brand in the US and the biggest in the UK, I can imagine it's going to create more jobs at our site in Herefordshire."

He added: "If you look back, seven years ago we had 70 people, five years ago we had 100. The growth in people has gone on as we have grown our brands."

The deal will not lead to a restructure of the business's management, except to see chief executive David Milner take on a new role as International Preisdent of Amplify.

Mr Hedges said the two companies are well suited to each other, and while the deal has seen Tyrrells triple in value since it was last taken over, and become the junior partner in the latest deal, Amplify is a far more similar business to Tyrrells than its previous owner, Investcorp.

Its sales are around double that of the crisp manufacturer, clocking in at around £88 million in its half year results this week, whereas Bahrain investment company Investcorp manages assets worth more than $10 billion (£7.7 billion).

"We have been working on this deal for about six months, and there were several interested parties," Mr Hedges added. "We chose Amplify because they were the best fit for the business.

"We are a global business with no reach inside North America, they are an American business with no infrastructure outside North America. The synergies couldn't be better.

"When we looked at all our options it was by far our preferred choice.

"They don't have any manufacturing capability at the moment, but their sales and marketing team in the USA is second to none." While the takeover is the third in the 14-year history of Tyrrells, whose founder William Chase left the business at the time of the first takeover in 2008, Mr Hedges said it retains its traditional feel.

"The reality is that our brand is truly authentic," he said. "We grow most of our potatoes within 50 miles of the farm, all our marketing team is based on the farm, and many of the people who started the business are still here. We don't have to try to find a way to be authentic and small and local, as without the small bit we are authentic and local."

There's only so much Englishness you can throw at foreign countries though – Tyrrells' crisps will still be called "chips" when they are stacked on the shelves of American supermarkets.

Mr Hedges said: "The Tyrrells brand will be sold and distributed by the Amplify team in the USA and the Tyrrells team in the UK will continue to sell the Tyrrells and Poshcorn brands, with Skinnypop to add to the portfolio."