American food group Gruma has acquired Pride Valley Foods for £20 million. The sellers were entrepreneur Hossain Razaei, who owned 85 per cent of the acquired company, and his fellow directors Roger McKechnie and Michael Hughes.

Pride Valley, based in Seaham, County Durham, is the biggest specialist manufacturer of tortillas, pitta, chapatti and naan bread in Europe. The company employs 300 people, and its turnover last year was £24 million.

Gruma is one of the world’s biggest tortilla and corn flour producers with 17,000 employees in 50 countries. The acquisition of Pride Valley Foods will allow it to extend its reach into the UK and Europe, which it currently services from a small factory in Leicester.

Razaei says: ‘You need to be unselfish and ask what is right for the business. What was right was to find an international buyer with more clout, muscle and diversification, to get the concept across Europe.’