Richmond Foods, the UK's largest ice cream manufacturer, has invested more £m to extend its interests in the impulse ice cream sector.

Richmond, of Leeming Bar, near Northallerton in North Yorkshire, has bought stock, plant and equipment from the Dairygold Co-operative Society for £561,000.

The deal allows Richmond, which employs more than 800 staff on four sites, to make and sell soft-serve ice cream and dispensing systems marketed under The Ice Creamery brand name.

The Ice Creamery's pre-portioned 125ml cartridges are filled with dairy ice cream that is dispensed to look like a traditional soft ice cream.

The system's operational simplicity means there are no breakdowns and no need for operator training.

A spokesman for Richmond said: "Traditional soft ice cream dispensers are both expensive to acquire and require intensive cleaning, which can be problematic where inexperienced staff are using the equipment.

"The main advantage of the Ice Creamery system is that the ice cream can be stored and extruded at -18C. Other systems require products to be stabilised to -10C before serving which can cause difficulties in maintaining adequate ready-to-use stocks and reduce the shelf life of the products."

The Ice Creamery system was launched in September 1998, and since then has been installed in 1,500 locations, ranging from corner shops to pubs and train stations.

The new soft dairy ice cream will complement the range of Nestle and Treats products that Richmond supplies. It also strengthens the company's claim to be the able to supply the most comprehensive range of ice cream products in the UK.

James Lambert, Richmond chief executive, said: "Acquiring this proven serving system takes us into the expanding soft serve ice cream sector which is currently worth around £65m a year.

"It also presents us with a unique opportunity to further develop sales of our powerful Nestle brands such as Rolo, Fruit Pastil and Smarties."

Last year, Richmond acquired the Nestle Ice Cream UK business in a £10m deal, allowing the company to manufacture and distribute Nestle products on a long term basis, and making it the UK's largest manufacturer of ice cream products by volume.

The firm is the principal supplier of own label ice cream to supermarkets, with a market share of more than 50 per cent.

The firm is building a factory at its Leeming Bar site which will give the company the capacity to produce 175 million litres of ice cream a year, producing about 30 per cent of all UK ice cream consumed in the home.