Consumer goods company SHS Group has acquired the Irish business of Swedish Match, including ownership of the Cara and Maguire & Patterson match brands. It did not disclose the price it paid for the business.

Swedish Match, which is quoted on the Swedish Stock Exchange, owns a range of lighter, match and niche tobacco brands. It also acts as an agent for number of grocery and pharmacy brands in the Republic, including Colgate, Lemsip, Marigold, Wilkinson Sword, Twinings and Ovaltine.

The group employs 45 people at Ballycoolin in Dublin. Both its operations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have been acquired by SHS Group under the deal

SHS Group, a privately owned company operating in the fast-moving consumer goods sector in Ireland and the UK, said the acquisition was part of its ongoing growth strategy.

SHS Group, which was established in Northern Ireland in 1975, has also acquired Clayton Love Distribution and Merrydown Plc in the last two years. It now has 11 businesses spread over four areas: sales and marketing, brand ownership, corporate services and manufacturing.

Michael Howard, group managing director of SHS Group, said Swedish Match's strength in the pharmacy sector in the Republic would ensure that the group's overall activities in the Republic more closely mirrored its activities in Northern Ireland, where it is already established in the pharmacy sector.

SHS Group had a turnover of €400 million in 2004 and employs 630 people in Northern Ireland, the Republic and the UK.