Grain merchants Alexander Inglis & Son go into administration. The company has five grain stores across East Scotland and the Borders with a turnover of around £100 million, and employs 40 staff.

Tom MacLennan and Chad Griffin, partners with business advisory firm FRP, have been appointed joint administrators.

The grain and agricultural trading firm supplies cereal, barley, seed and fertiliser principally to a wide range of customers in the whisky, malting and distilling sectors, and led by former Scotland rugby star Jim Aitken.

The business had been suffering from weaker trading in recent months following a poor harvest in 2020 and a fall in demand stemming from the Covid pandemic, while it had continued to be affected by legacy losses on dealings with the failed Philip Wilson Group.

Founded in 1950, Alexander Inglis and Son is a long-established grain and agricultural trading business that supplies cereal, barley, seed and fertiliser principally to a wide range of customers in the whisky, malting and distilling sectors"