His first business success was to acquire cheaply, a stake in a small ice-cream company called Mr Whippy, which he sold on to Charles Forte for a high price two years later.

[4] Nick Horsley's brother-in-law, Christopher Haskins found himself on a plane next to Marks & Spencer (M&S) executive who was setting up a new store in Belfast.

Nicholas Horsley took early retirement due to a rare genetic wasting disease, and by 1986, Haskins had become chairman of Northern Foods.

[13] The loss of the high return on milk made a measurable impact on all dairy companies including Northern Foods.

This was rejected by M&S which, partly as a result of shareholder pressure, decided to be more transactional in its supplier relationships and started to take volume out of the Northern Foods factories to diversify its supply base.

[19][20] Lastly, the Green Isle Boyle site and its Trafford Park Bakery were also closed with production either consolidated into other factories within its footprint or moved to other manufacturers such as Ginsters.

[23] Whereas trading was now performing well, a major issue for Northern Foods’ had become its large pension scheme, which since the 2008 financial crisis, had moved from being in surplus to having a sizeable £150m deficit.

[24] A merger of equals with Greencore was proposed to help address this, but the pension fund preferred the protections given in an alternative offer by 2 Sisters PLC; which successfully consummated the acquisition in May 2011.

On 11 September 2020, Northern Foods sold the Fox's Biscuits brand to Ferrero SpA, an Italian multinational specialized in the production of chocolate and snacks.