Wedding gift firm Wrapit was put into administration yesterday as hundreds of couples waited for their presents.
The business, which has showrooms in Glasgow and Aberdeen, said it had failed to negotiate a rescue package after a financial crisis it has blamed on its bankers, HSBC.
Wrapit said most of its customers - 2000 couples and perhaps 100,000 gift-makers - would get their money back, but only if they paid by credit card.
Peter Gelardi, the company's chief executive, said: "Since HSBC's decision in May to retain our credit and Visa debit card income, we have fought hard to keep Wrapit in business and find a white knight to provide the necessary funds to enable the company to continue trading and implement its growth strategy.
"There have been several contenders but each one has fallen away in the face of the failure of HSBC to co-operate financially, or even provide an ongoing credit card processing facility. The last one fell away on Friday and therefore, with heavy hearts, but mindful of our responsibilities with regard to wrongful trading, the board has set the insolvency wheels in motion."
Couples have been deeply worried about the company for the past week after the first rumours of financial problems emerged.
Mr Gelardi yesterday claimed four out of five people would get their money back, but only because HSBC has agreed to honour all credit card payments.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article