Morgan Stanley, the global financial services business, has listed Birds Eye as one of a number of private equity owned businesses which it says are ripe for a sell off.

Unilever sold their Birds Eye frozen food arm to the private equity group Permira for around £1.6 million two and a half years ago. Almost immediately the new owners created controversy by closing their Hull seafood factory with the loss of around 600 jobs, moving production to the main European factory in Germany which makes most of the fish products sold in Europe under the Iglo brand.. At the time the move led to a nationwide anti private equity protest which died down after it was disclosed that the Hull Birds Eye staff received some of the most generous redundancy payments in British industry. The company, which began fish production at Grimsby more than 50 years ago, still retains a major UK production centre at Lowestoft.

Birds Eye has annual sales approaching £1-billion and profits of around £161 million and is growing fast thanks to its new 'Simply Fish' range which increasingly features sustainably sourced pollack among its new fish dishes. With frozen food - and frozen fish in particular - enjoying a sales resurgence thanks to its no waste claim - it may not be long before Birds Eye becomes a publicly listed blue chip business.

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