The luxury Belgian chocolatier Godiva, named after the legendary Lady Godiva, is to be bought by Turkish company Yildiz for $850m (£428m).

Yildiz, the owner of Ülker Group, the largest consumer goods company in the Turkish food industry, agreed to acquire the brand from Campbell Soup.

Campbell put Godiva up for sale in August, saying it did not fit with its strategy of focusing on simple meals like soup.

Douglas R. Conant, Campbell's chief executive, said he was pleased with the price obtained for the chocolatier.

He added: "The agreement allows Ülker to expand and diversify its portfolio with an elite, global luxury brand and enables Campbell to sharpen our strategic focus on simple meals, anchored by soup, baked snacks, and vegetable-based beverages."

Godiva has annual sales of around $500m. It has more than 270 retail shops in the US, Europe, and Asia and over 2,000 wholesale customers. It also has a direct-sales business through its website.

The sale is expected to be completed in the next few months, ending more than 40 years of Campbell ownership of the chocolate brand.

Godiva was founded in 1926 in Brussels by Joseph Draps. He named his chocolate company after Lady Godiva, a beautiful noblewoman married to the Earl of Mercia 10 centuries ago.

According to legend, she took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering under her husband's oppressive taxation. He said he would remit the tolls if she rode naked through the town which, according to legend, she did. The first Godiva shop outside Belgium was opened in Paris in 1958 on the upmarket street Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré. In 1966, Godiva made its North American debut at Wanamaker's in Philadelphia.

In the same year, a controlling interest in the company was sold to Campbell, which later acquired the rest of the company.

Godiva then expanded to Asia, with the first chocolates becoming available in Japan in central Tokyo in 1972. In 1998, the first Godiva store in Hong Kong opened, and it is now also present in Taiwan and Singapore.