A historic Birmingham manufacturer has been acquired by a Scandinavian engineering group.

Accles & Shelvoke, based in Minworth, has been bought out by Danish group Frontmatec in an undisclosed deal.

Founded in 1913, Accles & Shelvoke makes and supplies precision-engineered cartridge-powered captive bolt stunners which are used in the food production industries.

Frontmatec supplies customised equipment and software for the red meat industry.

Frontmatec said its ownership of Accles & Shelvoke would support the business' growth and development of new products and markets.

Accles & Shelvoke was formerly part of Eley Group which makes ammunition used in target shooting by competitors including Olympic athletes.

The business supplies the cartridges to Accles & Shelvoke for their captive bolt equipment.

Joe Holland, who was appointed general manager of Accles & Shelvoke just over a year ago, will take full control of the manufacturer, reporting directly to the Frontmatec management board.

He said: "We sell our products all over the world, both directly to end users and through a network of over 40 distributors serving over 60 countries.

"In recent months, we have been focusing on expanding our presence globally by signing new distributors, in addition to building our product range.

"Our new owners will help develop and build the company through continued investment and I am excited to be leading the business in achieving that goal."

Frontmatec chief executive Henrik Andersen added: "Our ambition is to offer a full product and service offering to the industry (and) Accles & Shelvoke is a fantastic addition to our business with an existing large share of the global captive bolt equipment market which we aim to develop further."