The closure comes after a previous restructuring programme ‘failed to produce the projected financial results’, The Southern Reporter reports.

The latest 50 or so workers to leave Peter Scott, owned by Northampton-based Gloverall, are those in its section which knits products on the company’s Shima Seiki machines. From the end of this week, the workers will be put on so-called garden leave, alongside dozens of other staff awaiting redundancy packages.

According to the newspaper, by the end of next month, there will be only a handful of customer service and warehouse staff at the premises, down from a payroll of around 70 earlier this year.

A company spokesman told The Southern Reporter a number of staff had already found alternative employment.  “It is a sad time, but it is no fault of the staff, and it is not through a lack of skills. They have given 100% effort,” he said.

Hawick honorary provost Stuart Marshall said: “The news that Peter Scott has ceased manufacturing in the town after nearly 150 years is a real hammer blow, not only because of the disappearance of this world-famous brand name being knitted in Hawick, but also more importantly for the first-class workforce that it has decided to discard.

“Having known many of those employees who have been made redundant, I can honestly say how saddened I am to learn that such a highly-skilled and quality-conscious workforce are now faced with such an uncertain future, and I can only hope that their skills can be absorbed in some way by some of the more prosperous knitwear companies in our town.

Read the original story