Uniq, a UK food company struggling with a £130m (€181m) pension deficit, has agreed a final settlement for the fund that hands the group's pension trustees an unusual degree of power over corporate strategy.

Uniq's move is likely to be watched carefully by Edmund Truell, the pensions buyout entrepreneur who has taken a 9.6% stake in the group. In the past Truell's Pension Corporation has built stakes in companies with the aim of taking control of their retirement funds.