The history of Aspall cider began in 1728 with the arrival at Aspall Hall of Clement Chevallier, originally from Jersey, who had inherited the property six years earlier.

Detailed records left by him show that he began planing apple trees brought over from his native island within a matter of days and started to make “cyder” – an old spelling still preferred by the firm for its products - the same year, using fruit from other local growers until his own trees reached maturity.

The company as it is today owes much to John Chevallier Guild, the father of Henry and Barry, who joined the family busiiness in 1970 and oversaw the installation of its first new apple press in nearly 250 years and expanded the product range to include organic apple juice and vinegar as well as cider.

Other notable characters in the family’s history include John Barrington (JB) Chevallier who played in four FA Cup Finals for Old Etonians and was a co-founder of Derby County FC, and his daughter, Perronelle Chevallier, who was a founder member of the Soil Association.

Molson Coors, which is based in Denver, Colorado, USA, is the world’s seventh-largest brewer in terms of volume. Its best-known brands in the UK and Ireland include Carling, Worthington’s, Caffreys, Cobra and Sharp’s.

The group was created in its present form in 2005 through the merger of the Canadian-based Molson company, established in Montreal by John Molson in 1786, and Coors, formed in Golden, Colorado, by Adolph Coors in 1873.

The combined group is now the largest brewer in the United States following expansion in 2016 when, due to regulatory concerns over the merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, it acquired full ownership of brands previously operated through a US joint venture with SAB.

Until now, the oldest brand in the group was Worthington’s, first established in Burton upon Trent in 1761 and acquired by Coors in 2002 from Bass, another Burton brewer with which it had merged in 1927, but Aspall cider, first made in 1728, now takes over this status within Molson Coors.

However, the acquisition of niche companies by multi-nationals keen to share in the popularity of emerging market trends has something of a chequered history.

In adding Aspall to its portfolio, Molson Coors hopes to repeat the success it has had in building sales of Sharp’s beers since its acquisition of the Cornish craft brewer seven years ago.

But for many real ale enthusiasts, the jury is still out in respect of another brewer, London-based Meantime, which was acquired by SABMiller in 2015 but offloaded little more than a year later to Japanese group Asahi as part of a deal clearing the way for SAB’s acquisition by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Away from the drinks sector, any logic behind the purchase of organic chocolate brand Green & Black’s by Cadbury’s in 2005 was overtaken by the takeover five years later of Cadbury’s by US giant Kraft.

And French group L’Oreal’s acquisition of ethical cosmetics firm The Body Shop proved an unhappy marriage, with the UK brand being sold last year to Brazilian group Natura.