The appointment was made on 11 March 2024 after the refrigerated haulage firm based in Annan, Dumfriesshire, ceased trading.

The business had effectively ceased to trade prior to the provisional liquidation appointment. All 37 drivers and office staff were laid off.

Blair Milne, restructuring and insolvency partner at Azets, said: “The road haulage industry is facing a multitude of challenges as it contends with the transition to net zero, inadequate infrastructure, a major skills gap and unsustainable cost increases, exacerbated by the rising cost of living.

“Small-to-medium (SME) sized operators, which make up the majority of the UK road transport sector, have inevitably been hit the hardest. These businesses typically operate with average margins of as little as 2%, meaning the impact of even a small change in trading conditions can be catastrophic.

“The majority of the company’s fleet of trucks and trailers were subject to finance agreements at the date of liquidation and arrangements have been made to have those assets either returned or sold at auction.

“We will now focus on providing every possible support to the redundant workforce, assisting them with their claims to the Redundancy Payments Office and with accessing support from agencies such as PACE.”