Greene King has agreed to sell its Old Speckled Hen ale brands to Barcelona-based brewer Damm, the Spanish owner of Estrella lager, in a deal that will hand the 227-year-old British beer label to a foreign drinks group. The sale covers the full range, including the non-alcoholic and golden ale versions.

Greene King said the beers would keep being brewed at its Westgate site in Bury St Edmunds during the handover, before production shifts to Damm’s brewery in Bedford, which opened last year. The companies did not disclose the value of the deal.

Even after the transfer is complete, Old Speckled Hen will still be sold in Greene King pubs, major UK supermarkets and the off-trade. That matters because the brand has long been one of the best-known names in British ale, with a history tied to a one-off commemorative brew and a shift in who owns and sells it.

Morland first brewed Old Speckled Hen in 1979 to mark the MG Car Company’s 50th anniversary of its move from Oxford to Abingdon, after the business asked for a beer to celebrate the occasion. The name came from MG’s Featherlight Saloon, which the company called the “owld speckl’d un” because of its mottled appearance. Greene King bought the brand from Morland in 1999.

The sale fits a wider pattern in British beer, where established labels have increasingly moved to foreign drinks groups. Greene King, meanwhile, has been steering toward its own pubs and UK on-trade rather than the off-trade, and the company said it was pleased to have found a partner that would keep brewing in Britain.

Nick Mackenzie said he was “delighted to have secured a partner in Estrella Damm who will continue to brew the ales in the UK.” That promise leaves the brand’s identity intact for now, but the centre of gravity is shifting. Old Speckled Hen will remain on British shelves and in Greene King pubs, yet ownership and eventually production will sit with Damm, not the brewer that has controlled it since 1999.