A PIE business based in Denby Dale has new owners.

Administrators at accountancy firm PKF have sold the assets of Denby Dale Pie Ltd to a newly-formed company, Chapel Foods Ltd.

The new owners plan to re-employ some of the 11-strong workforce made redundant when the frozen pie manufacturer ran into problems.

They are also negotiating to use the Denby Dale name after title rights were sold separately to another company.

The administrators have also sold Scunthorpe-based Country Chef Limited, which was linked to Denby Dale Pie Ltd by common shareholders.

Country Chef Ltd, which processes potatoes and employed 80 people, has been bought by Abbeydale Foods Ltd.

It also hopes to re-employ many of the ex-workers.

Abbeydale Foods Ltd and Chapel Foods Ltd are part of a group of companies managed by businessmen Colin Wright and Andrew Hays – both of whom have long experience of senior management positions in the food industry.

Jon Newell, partner at PKF and joint administrator, said Country Chef and Denby Dale Pie Ltd were placed into administration last month due to lack of available raw materials.

The combined workforce was made redundant because of lack of short-term working capital.

Mr Newell said: “We undertook a targeted campaign of marketing the businesses and their associated assets.

“We are pleased to have achieved this sale and understand that the purchasers’ intentions are to re-employ a substantial number of those who, regrettably, had to be made redundant.”

Denby Dale Pie Ltd was formed in 2001 in the village that is world-renowned for making huge record-breaking pies.

The first recorded large-scale pie-making in the village was in 1788 to celebrate the recovery of King George III from a major illness.

Since then, nine other pies have been baked in the village to coincide with special events and to raise money for local charities.