A former professional rugby player looks set for a £45million windfall after selling his healthy drinks brand to the owner of Vimto.

Gary Lavin, who played for Leinster and Harlequins, has struck a deal that will see London-listed Nichols buy his business VitHit for £64million.

The Irishman owns around 70 per cent of the company, which he launched in Dublin while recovering from a rugby injury 25 years ago as a healthy alternative to sugary sports drinks.

That would put him in line for around £45million for his stake.

VitHit is well-established in the UK and Ireland and has expanded into 13 overseas markets, making more than £22million of revenues last year and profits of £3.5million.

Nichols said the acquisition was a 'strategic milestone' for the group, adding it has plans to ramp up the VitHit brand’s sales growth.

Lavin said: 'Since launching VitHit more than 25 years ago, our ambition has always been to build a distinctive health and wellness drinks brand with broad consumer appeal.

'We are proud of what the team has achieved and consider Nichols the ideal partner to support the next stage of the brand’s development.'

Nichols will keep VitHit’s Dublin office and said it would be 'supported by its management team, some of whom will step away after a smooth transition, while the chairman and founder, Gary Lavin, will step down from day one'.

Nichols chief executive Andrew Milne said: 'With its established market position, alignment with our asset-light operating model, proven profitability and significant headroom for growth, VitHit perfectly fits the acquisition profile we have been looking for and is fully aligned with our long-term growth strategy.

'Nichols is ideally placed to accelerate VitHit’s development through our commercial capabilities, customer relationships, route-to-market expertise and international infrastructure.

'A significant opportunity exists to expand distribution across the group’s existing customer base.'