Premier Foods has sold its Hartley's jams and spreads business to US trade buyer Hain Celestial for some £200m (€252.9m). 

The deal will be a relief for Premier Foods, which is weighed down by a £1.3bn debt burden, a legacy from its period under ownership by Lion Capital. 

The jams and spreads business attracted preliminary bids of between £160m and £180m from Morgan Stanley Private Equity, CapVest, TDR and HIG, but disagreements over the valuation saw Hain Celestial pull through as the favourite. 

The winning bid has come as something as a surprise for analysts given Hain's high-performance product portfolio, a stark contrast with the minimal growth in Hartley's jams business.