Associated British Foods is set to sell six of its nine flour mills to US mill giant Archer Daniels Midland for an undisclosed sum.

The move will see ABF provide flour exclusively for Allied Bakeries, the group’s bakery arm, with brands such as Kingsmill.

ABF chief executive Peter Jackson said: “The disposal of the British third-party flour milling business leaves AB Foods with a very effective, integrated flour milling operation.”

The mills to be sold - which account for half the company’s flour output amounting to £100m in annual sales - are in Liverpool, Corby, Tewkesbury, Castleford, Knottingley, and Edinburgh. About two-thirds of the 660 staff at the mills will be transferred to ADM, the rest retained by Allied Bakeries to work in its other three mills. There will be no redundancies.

Earlier this week, ABF sold its glass packaging business, Allied Glass Containers, in an MBO.