UK-based food company Real Good Food (RGF) has agreed to conditionally divest Brighter Foods, its snack bar subsidiary, to e-commerce company The Hut Group (THG).

Brighter Foods produces organic snack bars that are supplied to the global confectionery, wellness and breakfast food industries.

The £43m ($59.6m) deal is expected to close on or around 11 May.

Upon completion of the deal, Brighter Foods will become part of THG’s Nutrition division and join its brand portfolio, which includes Myprotein, Myvegan, Myvitamins and Exante.

RGF, through its subsidiary NBF, owned an 84.3% stake in Brighter Foods and will receive cash proceeds of £35.6m ($49.3m). The remaining shares will continue to be owned by Brighter’s management.

RGF executive chairman Mike Holt said: “We are very pleased with the disposal, which crystallises substantial value for us and enables us to halve our debt burden at a stroke, whilst materially improve the funding of our pension scheme.

“It also provides a basis for further balance sheet restructuring, as we look to accelerate and maximise value within [RGF brands] Renshaw and Rainbow Dust Colours.”

Brighter Foods has reportedly reformulated the majority of THG Nutrition’s snack bar portfolio.

THG said that the acquisition of Brighter Foods will allow the company to make use of knowledge and resources for formulating and producing high-quality, healthier snack bars.

THG executive chairman and CEO Matthew Moulding said: “We are delighted to announce our first major acquisition within THG Nutrition this year. Brighter highly complements our developed vertical integration strategy and strengthens our capabilities in the growing convenience and snack bar market.

“Nutritional bars are a high growth category for THG, with significant product extension opportunity across all our brands.”

In 2019, RGF secured a credit facility from Leumi ABL, the specialist asset-based lending subsidiary of Bank Leumi, to repay debt.