The McCambridge Group has confirmed the sale of its private-label cake division this morning.

The Blackburn-based bakery firm’s own-label cake business, which produces a range of cakes and pies for leading retailers, has been sold to private equity group NBGI Private Equity.

The cake division currently employs 637 members of staff at its UK bakeries in Manchester, Bradford, Blackburn and Salisbury, as well as a further 259 employees working at its manufacturing site Szczecin in Poland.

The company said it had been approached in October by a number of third parties and was considering potential buyers for the business. McCambridge would not disclose the value of the sale, but confirmed that no redundancies would be made as a result of the move.

Simon Webber, chairman of the McCambridge Group, said: “The cake division has great growth potential. A strategic review, coupled with approaches from interested parties, led us to establish that the division would benefit from being demerged and managed as a separate entity. We are delighted that the business has been sold to NBGI Private Equity, which has a track record in owning businesses in the food industry. The successful sale of the cake division is a great credit to all management and employees.”

He added that McCambridge would be focusing on developing its additional two divisions, which includes its malt loaf and fruit loaf brand Soreen, and its Irish McCambridge bakery business which produces soda bread in Ireland.