Administrators for baker New Rathbones struck a deal to sell the business to two buyers as Food Manufacture went to press.
The purchasers have not been named, although sources speculated that former Rathbones owner Harry Kear and partner Viv Knight had bought sites in Wigan, Wakefield and Middlesbrough, and that the management at the baker William Price had picked up the Walsall, Peterborough and Leicester sites.
Investec analyst David Lang said it was "unlikely that a lot of money had changed hands" for the sites, which supply mainly own-label plant bread to supermarkets in a market dogged by overcapacity and low profits.
He added: "Brands are continuing to take share from own-label, so I can only assume that the new owners have been given some kind of assurances about additional volume from customers in order to keep them going."
Other companies understood to have looked at the sites include Associated British Foods, supermarket Morrison, which is a major customer of the Wakefield plant, and Warburtons, which might be interested in the Peterborough bakery, said Lang.