There has to be another way and M&S should help us find it

The closure of the Pinneys plant would be a personal disaster for hundreds of families in Annan.

But Scottish salmon is the UK’s biggest food export and this decision should concern the whole country.

The response from the Scottish Government has been swift. The business minister Paul Wheelhouse is hoping to persuade Young’s to keep the “natural salmon” processing jobs here.

Quite right, too. How can a product be marketed as premium Scottish salmon when it is prepared in Grimsby?

Much of the anger in Annan has been understandably directed at the management.

However, Pinneys’ sole customer Marks & Spencer are in my view just as culpable.

For years, M&S insisted that the plant in Annan produce food exclusively for their stores. Only recently Young’s spent £600,000 upgrading the Pinneys site at M&S’s behest. But depending on just one customer makes any business vulnerable.

This is the way the big supermarkets operate. They have enormous power, squeezing farmers and other suppliers until they buckle.

I have written to M&S chairman Archie Norman demanding details of how his company may have influenced the Pinneys disaster.

M&S claims to put people and communities first. But the people of Annan did not come first. They came last.

Why did Young’s let go the M&S contracts for prepared meals and deli products at Pinneys?

Did Marks refuse to raise its price to reflect the rising cost of raw materials, including salmon? Did M&S even try to keep the contracts in Annan?

M&S is “restructuring” its supply base at present, to make savings. Was that behind Young’s decision to concentrate natural salmon production in Grimsby?

I have urged Marks to start talking to the Scottish Government and to make amends to Annan.

They value their public image. It’s time they lived up to it.