SAUSAGE maker Manor Born has been bought by a Sheffield food manufacturer.

Manor Born, which is based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, supplies most major supermarket chains and also has licensing agreements with Heinz and Colman's Mustard.

Manor Born's owners, Andrew and Debbie Keeble, and 20 staff will continue to work for the business, which has been bought by J&J Tranfield.

The two companies will continue to operate separately.

Mr Keeble said: "With J&J Tranfield now on board, the future of the business, its brands and our staff are in safe hands.

"The day-to-day running of the business will largely remain unchanged, but we are looking forward to developing further product areas in the future."

Since its foundation in 2003, Tranfield has expanded steadily, with the acquisition of KingsCourt Foods last year, now known as Tranfield of Cumbria, becoming the leading producer of sausage products in the UK.

Tranfield has an annual turnover of £52m and employs 450 people at sites in Sheffield and Cumbria.

Mike Hutchinson, managing director of J & J Tranfield, said: "The expansion of our business is dependent upon an acquisition-based strategy to consolidate our position as the largest manufacturer in the sector by volume.

"We estimate the sausage market is worth in excess of half-a-billion pounds and anticipate this will continue to grow."

Earlier in the year, Manor Born secured the first licence from Heinz to use its baked beans as an ingredient when it launched the Heinz Baked Bean sausage - a tomato-flavoured pork sausage containing baked beans.

The sausages followed the success of a Colman's Mustard sausage launched by the company last March.

Mr and Mrs Keeble set up Manor Born in 1999, after diversifying from pig farming.

Based on Thirsk Industrial Estate, the company had a turnover last year of £1.6m.

All of its meat is produced by local farmer Tom Bell.

In the past six years, the company has gone from selling sausages at farmers' markets to gaining a foothold with major supermarkets and food distributors.

The supermarkets it supplies include Sainsbury's, the Co-op, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda.