Premium meat retailer collapses with loss of 75 jobs

Premium butcher and online meat retailer Farmison & Co has gone into administration, with the loss of 75 jobs.

A statement on Farmison’s website confirmed that the company had appointed administrators FRP Advisory on 6 April and ceased to trade with immediate effect.

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A small core of staff will remain at the firm’s headquarters in Ripon, North Yorkshire, to work with FRP as they sell off assets including the brand and intellectual property.

In a statement, FRP partner Arvindar Jit Singh said that Farmison had made significant operational investment in recent years as it aimed to carve out a differentiated brand online.

But the firm could not generate the required level of revenues to sustain its high cost base.

A recent attempt to save Farmison with a fund-raising process to secure external investment failed to achieve sufficient interest, Mr Singh reported.

Hopes for survival had also been pinned on buyout talks with London-based meat wholesaler Tom Hixson of Smithfield.

But negotiations ended without a deal being reached, triggering Farmison’s collapse.

Despite entering administration Farmison chief executive John Pallagi refused to give up on the firm he founded to help local farmers and improve the quality of meat offered by retailers.

He told Yorkshire-based news site, the Stray Ferret: “We have half a million people on our database and an established UK brand that has won many awards. There’s every reason to keep this company alive.

“I’m a fighter. I’ve been in this business for 21 years and I’m confident we can turn around this wrong turn that we’ve taken.”