Farmers suffer blow as Angus Cereals enters administration

Search on to find buyer for the cooperative’s assets before harvest time

Farmers across Tayside and Fife have been left reeling by the collapse of a cooperative that stores and sells grain for 69 agriculture businesses across the region.

Angus Cereals Limited has gone into administration, just ahead of this year’s harvest.

The farmer-owned cooperative has a 40,000-tonne storage facility at Montrose harbour, which cost it £7 million to develop.

Administrators say they are hoping to secure a buyer for the assets by harvest time.

The bulk of the members are Angus farmers, but several are from Perthshire and at least one grower in Fife is affected.

Former director David Fairlie, of West Balmirmer, Arbroath, said he believes work is already in progress to source a new partner .

“These are good facilities and hopefully by next week we will know more about an alternative operator,” he said.

Crieff farmer and Quality Meat Scotland chairman Jim McLaren, another former director, said the administration was a result of “very unfortunate circumstances”.

Other farmers who did not want to be named said the business model had not delivered what growers originally hoped it would do.

One producer said: “Farmers will lose some capital but not a lot. Mainly they paid an annual charge to store and process the grain, so they paid for a service.

“We are optimistic that the facilities will still be available for 2018 but at the moment we don’t know under whose ownership that will be.”

The cooperative was first operational for the 2011 harvest and substantial EU grants were received for the Montrose plant.

Iain Fraser and Tom MacLennan, partners at specialist business advisory firm FRP Advisory LLP, were appointed as joint administrators on Thursday.

Mr Fraser said: “Angus Cereals has played an important role for the agricultural community in the east of Scotland. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to secure the future viability of the business and the board has been left with no alternative but to appoint administrators.

“We are now actively seeking a buyer for the assets at Montrose and are hopeful that this can be secured in time for the 2018 harvest.”

Angus Cereals’ website says it aims to “add value” to members’ businesses through “lower costs and effective marketing”.

Angus Cereals’ £7m storage facility is at Montrose harbour.