Adams Food Ingredients (AFI), owned by the Irish Dairy Board (IDB), has acquired FoodTec, a specialist ingredients business in the UK from Dairy Crest for £1.2m (€1.5m).

Foodtec provides specialist powder blending ingredients for food manufacturers, processors and packers. Based in Crewe, it focuses on gluten-free products, baked goods and other specialist nutrition products. Products include a stress relief range based on milk protein, a range of skim milk powder products and an egg replacement product called GelTec.

Joe Collins, IDB trading and ingredients division managing director, said: ‘The Foodtec acquisition presents exciting opportunities to grow both businesses in collaboration with both existing and new customers across new products, technologies and processes.”

Foodtec was established in 1994 under the name Fayrefield Foodtec. Originally a joint venture with Fayrefield, Dairy Crest assumed full control in 2009. However, after undertaking a strategic review earlier this year, it decided to sell the company. The UK dairy group has seen profitability come under pressure, particularly given the challenging nature of the UK spreads sector and issues at its liquid milk division. Dairy Crest says it will now focus on cutting costs out of the business while leveraging key areas of growth.

Adams Foods had sales of £500m last year and is now the UK’s largest supplier of pre-packed hard cheese. Their ingredients division, AFI, is primarily a powder blending business which works with UK food manufacturers and nutrition brands.