Scottish food company Enterprise Foods Limited has collapsed into liquidation after 35 years of operation, resulting in 71 redundancies. The East Kilbride-based firm, which traded as Localist, helped suppliers and producers get goods onto the shelves of major retailers.
The company entered liquidation after failing to refinance debts exceeding £5 million. George Lafferty of BTG was appointed provisional liquidator on Wednesday following a petition lodged by the company. Cash-flow problems had built up over several years, linked to debts from customer failures and worsened by challenging market conditions in the retail and hospitality sectors.
Thomas McKay, managing partner of BTG in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: "The directors had made efforts to restructure the debt of the company in order to save the business and rescue the jobs, and the loss of the jobs was sadly inevitable when this was not successful." He added that many small suppliers are owed money, and the loss of this route to market will have a serious knock-on effect on food producers.
McKay confirmed that BTG is working to assess claims and establish whether any dividend will be paid to unsecured creditors, but noted it is unlikely to be significant given the level of secured debts. The firm is supporting affected employees with access to financial entitlements and assistance from Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) and the Redundancy Payments Service.
The collapse of Enterprise Foods comes amid wider pressures on the UK foodservice sector, with rising costs and challenging conditions affecting many firms.
