An award-winning family business has been forced to sell up after one of the entrepreneurs behind the project died.

Sue and Richard Osborne turned a hobby of making natural syrups from the fruit they grew at their smallholding in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, into a business venture in 1999.

Having built up a tried and tested range, including damson, summer fruits, muscat and elderberry with cloves, Mrs Osborne hand-produced the stock with her husband lending his sales and marketing expertise while holding down a day job.

Mr Osborne decided to leave his full time job to plough all of his efforts into Pinks Farm Fruit Syrups last April but died just six weeks later, aged 55.

Now his widow has decided to search for an enthusiastic entrepreneur to take over and fully exploit the burgeoning potential of their unique product range.

While running Pinks Farm Fruit Syrups, the couple scooped 21 national food awards, including Best UK Farm Producer in the 2005 Great Taste Awards.

Since her husband's death, Mrs Osborne has been trying to keep up with the demands of supplying more than 90 retail stores nationwide virtually single-handed.

She said: "It was such a shock to lose Richard when we did. He and I were such a great team and no one can fill the gap.

"Our children have been exceptionally supportive and pro-active but they all have their own lives and careers and the business needs full time commitment. This is why I have reluctantly come to the decision to sell."

The sale of Pinks Farm Fruit Syrups will be managed by The Enterprise Consortium Ltd, which has described it as "a viable business with a unique, well proven product and a significant, proven potential for expansion".

Mrs Osborne added: "It has always been a profitable business but we have limited our growth because I simply can't handle the extra work. In the six weeks that Richard spent pushing the sales side, considerable interest was shown in the product and if circumstances had been different, things would have really taken off for us."

Pinks Farm Fruit Syrups has attracted plenty of media coverage in recent years, featuring in numerous consumer titles including Country Life, Olive and the Financial Times.

Mrs Osborne added: "Our syrups are used a lot by professional chefs. Aside from making great dessert toppings they work extremely well in sauces for meat, poultry and game, marinades and vinaigrettes and in both soft and alcoholic drinks and cocktails.

"Although the range has been sold into Waitrose stores and does very well at food fairs, in farm shops and delis, there are so many untapped markets yet to explore. I really hope we can find someone with the amount of passion Richard and I shared for this product, to take it on to new heights."

Assets to be included in the sale are production and storage equipment, supplier and customer databases, business know-how, the internet domain and website, stock of ingredients and packaging.