East Kilbride-based Localist – The Food Merchant entered liquidation earlier this year, resulting in the loss of 71 jobs.
Founded in 1994, the Scottish wholesaler was best known as Enterprise Foods and had delivered around 4,000 products each week to more than 2,500 grocery outlets across the UK, including major national chains such as Waitrose, Morrisons and Co-op.
Hamilton Sheriff Court appointed BGT’s George Lafferty as provisional liquidator on 18 March 2026, when the company ceased trading after failing to refinance debts of more than £5 million.
As reported by sister publication The Grocer, BGT said Localist – The Food Merchant had experienced ongoing cashflow difficulties built up in recent years through legacy bad debts following the failure of a number of customers, and exacerbated by challenging market conditions in the retail and hospitality sectors.
“The directors had made efforts to restructure the debt of the company in order to save the business and rescue the jobs, and the loss of the jobs was sadly inevitable when this was not successful,” said Thomas McKay, managing partner at BGT in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“There are many small suppliers to the business that are owed money, and the loss of this route to market will also have a serious knock-on effect on these food producers as well.
He continued: “We are working to assess all claims and establish whether there will be any dividend paid to unsecured creditors, but it is not likely to be significant, given the level of secured debts in the business.
“Regrettably, the failure of the company has resulted in 71 redundancies and we are working closely with those affected to help them access the financial entitlements and support available to them, including assistance from Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) and the Redundancy Payments Service.”
First launched as Food From Scotland Ltd, the business aimed to support independent Scottish food producers.
It later renamed itself Enterprise Foods Ltd as it expanded across the UK, before becoming Localist – The Food Merchant in 2025.
