MOORLAND Poultry, of Dalton near Thirsk, one of the UK's largest turkey producers.

Formerly part of the Hillsdown Holdings Group, the £50m-turnover company has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by a management buy-in team led by former turkey tycoon Ray Turner.

From its Dalton base, Moorland employs 800 people, including those who work on its integrated network of around 50 turkey farms, many of them near York, a hatchery and two factories producing more then 100,000 turkeys per week.

The deal was led and managed by Jonathan Smith of Sterling Corporate Finance, Leeds, and funded by Chris Burgess of the Leeds office of GE Capital Commercial Finance. Legal advice was provided by David Proctor of Roythorne & Co.

The Dalton factory, which was the first EU-approved poultry factory in the UK, markets its products into all sectors of the market place using its Buxted, Butterball and Twydale brand names. It also sells a high percentage of its output to major retailers in the UK for private label sales.

The new owner of Moorland, Ray Turner was previously the owner of Turners Turkeys Limited and was managing director of Unigate Poultry.