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First Quality Foods of Yate, Bristol has sold its couscous packing division, including the Sammy’s brand, for an undisclosed sum to Symington’s of Leeds, marking the company’s exit from ambient dry food packing after a 10-year run.

The Sammy’s range of couscous is the UK’s second largest brand after Ainsley Harriott, having sold more than 30 million packs since its introduction a decade ago. It's now sold in more than 10 countries worldwide.

The sale of Sammy’s to Symington’s, who also packs the Ainsley Harriott brand of couscous, along with many other own-label products, including flavoured rice and packet soups, was a strategic move to enable First Quality Foods to focus on the company’s core businesses. These being the cereal bar and cake bakery business Kingsbake and the ethnic food brand Al’Fez', comprising a range of Moroccan and Lebanese foods.

Managing Director Sam Jacobi said: “The sale of the Sammy’s brand and our couscous packing division will enable us to focus on our core businesses where we feel we can add significant value. We’d taken the Sammy’s brand as far as we could and feel that the brand can flourish under the wing of a bigger company. Symington’s seemed the natural home for Sammy’s.”

First Quality Foods’ bakery Kingsbake produces the company’s range of Ma Baker flapjacks as well as a wide range of other cakes, slices and natural fruit & nut bars under own brand and private label. The Al’Fez brand is the company’s range of Moroccan and Lebanese ambient foods, which it sells in several of the UK’s major multiples as well as exporting to several other countries.