Butcher's shop group Crawshaw has acquired profitable East Yorkshire Beef Limited to move into the premium segment of the market. East Yorkshire Beef operates a single premium sector butchers shop in Pocklington, near York made a £0.22m pre-tax profit and turned over roughly £1.1m in its last full year. Crawshaw said the acquisition gave it a foothold in a "completely different sector of the market". Chairman Richard Rose said: "We are very excited about this new development as it gives us a position in the premium segment of our market and provides both a well established retail store and a new supply chain which we could expand across other potential sites and online if we choose. Furthermore we believe there are operational synergies that can rapidly enhance the profitability of the acquired store."Shares in AIM-listed Crawshaw reared up 7.43% to 39.75p at 12:30 on Tuesday. OH