Vehicle conversion specialist Penman Engineering has gone into administration with the immediate loss of 44 jobs.
The Dumfries firm - whose business includes military and other armoured vehicles, reinforced limousines, emergency vehicles and customised commercial vehicles - has had Blair Nimmo and James Lumb of KPMG appointed as joint administrators.
Penman Engineering dates back to 1859 when it built horse-drawn coaches. Its armour-plated jeeps and trucks have been used in war zones worldwide and bullet-proof cars by diplomats, politicians and other dignitaries. It has more recently built reinforced cash-carrying vehicles for customers such as Securicor and vans for Openreach.
The firm employs 61 people, 17 of whom will stay on to assist the administration process. It designs builds and works on the software development of armoured military and security vehicles. It went into administration in 2016 but was bought that November by Hull-based commercial vehicles group Martin Williams.
The administrators said cash pressures had now made the business, registered as Penman MW Ltd, unsustainable.
