Lighthouse Caledonia, the company now owning the seafood processing plant at Cairndow on Loch Fyne (formerly Pan Fish) and which has recently closed its plant outside Stornoway in the Western Isles, has admitted to pressing liquidity problems.

In a press release issued on 16th December 2008, the company says: ‘During 2008 Lighthouse Caledonia ASA has been through a phase of restructuring to ensure the long term growth of the company in Scotland. Necessary investment needs and working capital requirements related to these processes have, as communicated in the third quarter 2008 report, generated a financing need that is planned to be solved through an equity issue before the end of the first quarter 2009.

‘A recent reduction in credit terms from one key supplier – with credit terms being reduced from 90 to 30 days – caused by the unresolved long-term financing of the company, has resulted in a constrained liquidity situation. Lighthouse need to resolve the liquidity situation short term and now considers all options to sustain its operations. The main lender, owners, potential investors as well as the main suppliers may all be part of a solution to the constrained liquidity situation and the long term financing and ownership of the company.

‘The Board of Directors in Lighthouse Caledonia ASA has decided to freeze payments due from the company until the liquidity situation is resolved. The company will maintain a close dialogue with all involved parties to seek to resolve the situation’.

Decoding this careful and necessarily self-protective text, the situation is clearly a serious one. It is accelerated by the current credit crunch. In a bitter double-jeopardy, potential solutions will find the same scarcity of credit prejudicing their chances of success. This is not good news for jobs in Argyll.