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Premium snack brand Ten Acre has been acquired by fellow crisps manufacturer Fairfields Farm, The Grocer can reveal this morning.

Fairfields, which has snapped up 100% of Ten Acre for an undisclosed sum, plans to capitalise on Ten Acre’s export expertise to push both brands overseas.

Ten Acre, founded by Tony Goodman in 2015, sells its range of hand-cooked crisps and popcorn in Holland & Barrett and Amazon, as well as Whole Foods, Fortnum & Mason and fine food shops and delis nationwide.

Fairfields Farm have been farming potatoes in East Anglia for three generations. Its crisps are hand cooked on the farm and available at Co-op and independent retailers.

“We have a synergy with Fairfields Farm; both believing in great taste and premium quality,” Goodman said.

“Export is to be a focus at Fairfields, which is great for Ten Acre, as we recently received the award for Export Champion from the Department for International Trade. Our joint attributes and parallel thinking will push both brands forward to become a force to be reckoned with in the snacking sector.”

Fairfields founder Robert Strathern said: “This is an exciting step for us. Ten Acre has the same values as Fairfields, so we felt they were a good fit. Plus, their experience and rapid growth in export, opens-up opportunities for us. Joining forces means taking the best attributes of both brands and growing the Ten Acre and Fairfields brand together, for continued success.”

Morning update

Things are starting to quiet down on the stock exchange and the period of Christmas updates comes to an end.

Elsewhere on thegrocer.co.uk/finance this morning is an exclusive that high-protein ice cream brand Wheyhey has raised £3m in a funding round backed by food & drink heavyweights, such as former Weetabix CEO Giles Turrell, to battle mounting competition in the category. Click here to read the full story.

Also, Aunt Bessie’s and Abel & Cole owner William Jackson has posted a rise in annual sales, but saw margins squeezed by “tough” conditions. The group reported 2017 sales edging up 0.9% to £318m after double-digit growth in 2016. Read the full story here.

Yesterday in the City

Diageo (DGE) ended the day down 0.2% to 2,537p after the drinks giant warned that the strengthening pound against the US dollar would result in a £460m hit to full year sales and £60m to operating profits. The Smirnoff owner reported that currency headwinds shaved £15m off operating profits and £134m from sales in the first half to 31 December. The stock had been up as much as 1.5% in earlier trading as investors reacted positively to the group beating analyst expectations for revenues and earnings per share for the period, with EPS before exceptional items up 9.4% to 67.8p, beating forecasts by 3.5%, and a 4.2% rise in organic sales to £6.5bn.

More profit taking saw SSP Group (SSPG) slump 4.8% to 623p. The travel concession operator had surged earlier in the week after revealing a strong start to its new financial year.

TATE & Lyle (TATE), British American Tobacco (BAT), Imperial Brands (IMB) and Ocado (OCDO) were all among the fallers, down 2.2% to 646p, 2.1% to 4,870p, 1.9% to 2,864p and 1.4% to 519p respectively.

Marks & Spencer (MKS) bounced back from a downgrade by Credit Suisse on Wednesday to rise 1.7% to 310.3p, with Associated British Food (ABF) and WH Smith (SMWH) also up 2.8% to 2,861p and 1.3% to 2,154p.

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