Dozens of jobs lost as retailer collapses

A Yorkshire meat retailer has collapsed into administration after rescue talks failed, with dozens of jobs lost.

Farmison, an online butcher based in Ripon, closed on Thursday with most of the 75-strong workforce being made redundant.

It is just a year since Scottish investor Inverleith backed the direct-to-consumer business and Farmison had recently run a £2m crowdfunding campaign, which it then dropped in February without taking the money.

The company had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on March 28, to provide a window of time to try and conclude a rescue deal.

A new company, Tom Hixson Farmison, was created on March 28, suggesting a deal with the London meat group was imminent.

But efforts failed with Arvindar Singh and Ben Jones from FRP Advisory appointed joint administrators and most staff made redundant ahead of the bank holiday weekend.

Singh said: “Farmison had made significant investment in recent years in its operations as it aimed to carve out a differentiated brand and offering in the online retail space.

“However, it proved too heavy a burden to sustain without the uplift in sales that it had expected. Without a major capital injection, the business could not continue trading and we must now commence an asset sale.”

Farmison was founded in 2011 by John Pallagi and Lee Simmonds, and former Asda chief executive Andy Bond was an early investor in the company.

The company’s most recent accounts, for 2021, showed a £2.7m loss on sales of £11.9m.