The two Vaux breweries, in Sunderland and Sheffield, have been put on the market with their entire estate of 664 associated pubs.

If there is no quick sale the two breweries will be closed by 2 July with the loss of 750 jobs.

Swallow Group, which is selling off its pubs and breweries business, said it would consider selling all parts of the estate with or without the breweries and that it had already received some interest in the pubs.

There are 468 Vaux pubs and 196 Ward pubs in the North of England.

Will a traditional beer be saved?

Swallow chief executive Peter Catesby said: "We will consider all approaches for any combination of the assets for sale.

"We expect the proposed sale of the entire tenanted estate will generate considerable interest."

Buy-out shunned

The latest move comes after efforts by management at the brewery business to engineer a management buy-out (MBO) were rejected by Swallow.

The brewery MBO team, backed by venture capital company Alchemy, is thought to have offered about £70m for the Vaux business.

The buy-out team was also seeking a contract to guarantee sales of the breweries' beers to the pubs estate.

But this offer was rejected by the Swallow board.

The Vaux business employs 600 staff at the Ward's brewery in Sheffield and 150 at the Vaux brewery in Sunderland.

Swallow announced its intention to quit the brewery business last September.

The decision created a boardroom split and last month the Swallow chairman Sir Paul Nicholson left the company.

He said the MBO should have been given greater consideration.

Sir Paul is the brother of MBO leader Frank Nicholson, but he denied his opinion was swayed by any family ties.