Lanark Farmfoods store to shut at end of the year

The store’s workers were called in for a meeting on Monday evening and told they would be losing their jobs.

One insider called the move “Scrooge-ish”, adding that the staff facing being dumped on the dole are expected to return after Christmas to move and sell off stock before the store closes.

It is understood that the reason given to workers for the store’s closure is that its rent is being increased.

The Cumbernauld-based company on Tuesday eventually confirmed to the Gazette that the store would shut at the end of 2016.

The store is part of a chain of more than 300 throughout the UK specialising in frozen foods but selling staples such as milk and bread too.

Its closure will be the second blow to hit Lanark High Street this year, with the large frontage of Store Twenty One on the other side of the road now sitting empty too.

Lanark Business Group chairman Alastair Brooks said: “The staff are bitterly disappointed that they are going to be losing their jobs on December 31.”

Mr Brooks also appealed to people to shop locally.

“The big concern is about the future of the town,” he said. “Here in Lanark, we are lucky that we have a decent choice of shops, but it is a fight.

“Great strides are being made by the development trust to make the town centre interesting, and I would urge people to think before they go online or jump in their car and drive to Livingston or Glasgow.

“If they invest their money locally, we will have a much better town.

“We encourage people to have a look at Lanark first when they do their Christmas shopping.”

An average of one store closed every day on Scotland’s high streets in the first half of 2016, a total of 203 outlets having shut their doors in the first six months of this year, according to PwC research compiled by the Local Data Company.