Italian ambient and dairy business Newlat Food has bought Leeds-based meal and snack manufacturer Symington’s.

Newlat is one of Italy’s largest producers of milk products, pasta and baked goods, gluten-free and protein-free products and baby food. It has 1,500 employees across 14 production plants in Italy and one in Germany.

Employing around 900 people, Symington’s also operates in the ambient food sector, encompassing brands such as Mug Shot, Naked, Twistd, The Hungry Elephant, Chicken Tonight and Ragu.

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Angelo Mastrolia, chairman of Newlat, said: “[Symington’s] is an interesting business with high potential for growth and we deem it to be a perfect fit into our strategic plan. We see a number of synergies between our businesses as we both produce complementary but different categories of products.”

David Cox, CEO at Symington’s, said: “Symington’s provides a strong springboard for Newlat’s brands into the UK market and Newlat gives us further opportunities for us to grow our brands internationally where Newlat has operations – in Italy and Germany.”

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