Premier Foods is looking for a buyer for its Erin brand to satisfy Competition Authority concerns that the company's acquisition of Bisto gravy maker RHM would have led to "a substantial lessening of competition" in the gravy market.
The Competition Authority has approved Premier Foods' €1.78 billion takeover of UK food company RHM on condition that the Erin brand is sold.
The proposal to dispose of the brand was put forward by Premier Foods after the authority flagged its concerns.
Premier Foods also owns the Oxo stock cubes brand. Both Premier and RHM maintained following the announcement of the takeover late last year that stock cubes were a separate product from thickening gravy granules.
Premier Foods acquired the Erin brand last year as part of its €677 million purchase of Campbell's UK and Ireland operations. Campbell's acquired the Erin business from Greencore in 2002.
Soups, sauces and casserole mixes as well as a range of gravy products are all sold under the Erin name, and it was to have become the dominant brand for the newly-formed Premier Foods Ireland, the division of Premier Foods formed from Campbell's that will also include Chivers Ireland, another recent acquisition.
The review of Premier Food's operations in Ireland will "now take the impact of this development into consideration and all employees will be kept fully informed", the company said in a statement.
Premier's acquisition of RHM, a deal that unites the Bisto kids with the Oxo family, was cleared by the Office of Fair Trading in the UK earlier this week.
