Meat Company Goes into Liquidation

A north of Scotland company supplying meat to the catering trade has gone into liquidation with the loss of 34 jobs in the wake of being hit by the recession and the collapse of a major hotel chain leaving the business with a bad debt of £330,000.

Aberdeen Scotch Meat, based in Inverurie, is a subsidiary of the Mathers group - also based in the town - which has an annual turnover of more than £30m. Mathers bought the company out of receivership nine years ago.

The joint liquidators are Ken Pattullo and Scott McGregor, of Aberdeen-based business rescue, restructuring and recovery specialist Begbies Traynor.

Mr Pattullo said: “The decision by Mathers to put this subsidiary into liquidation was both a painful one because of the loss of jobs involved. It was, however, left with little alternative when faced with the recession over the past year and the previous bad debt of £330,000 following the Swallow hotel group going into administration.”

He added: “It is a reflection of continuing problems in the economy and it is these which ultimately led to Aberdeen Scotch Meat being left with this bad debt.”

Mathers managing director Michael Mountford said: “It is important to stress that Mathers is a highly successful company and this has been a reluctant and sad decision but has been taken to ensure the continued successful trading of the group as a whole.”