End of road for Scots co-op

SHAREHOLDERS in the failed Aberdeenshire-based co-operative, North Eastern Farmers, have no chance of recouping their investment in the business.

The formal process of winding up the co-op, which had more than 7000 shareholding members, began last week when an application for voluntary liquidation was made to the Sheriff Court.

After years of losses, reported to amount to £11m, the NEF board announced in May 2003 that the firm was no longer viable.

Since then, chairman George Hendry has worked to sell assets and wind up the business. That role is now at an end.

Although the extent of NEF’s final debts has yet to be quantified, the main creditor is the firm’s pension fund, which was said to be £5m in deficit when accounts were last published in 2002.

Mr Hendry said a specialist pension fund valuer would be called in to determine the size of the deficit three years later.

He added that he hoped the impact on former employees would be minimal.