There is no date for when M& Co will shut down in Largs but the administrators say they aim to provide as much notice as possible to staff affected by the closure.

Financial advisory firm Tenco have already notified PACE - Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, Jobcentre Plus, the Insolvency Service and the redundancy payments service to provide support to staff.

In December, the PACE national team met the administrators to discuss support for workers who are made redundant, and it has provided further information about the help and support available.

At the Scottish Parliament, Labour MSP Katy Clark renewed her calls for the Scottish Government to look into setting up a ministerial task force in to support the workers in order to lessen the blow of this devastating news.

Largs and Millport Weekly News:

MSP Tom Arthur, Minister for Community Wealth responded: "In addition to extending an invitation to Katy to discuss the specific challenges around M&Co and the immediate response to those, I am also happy to engage on how we ensure that Scotland has a thriving retail sector for years to come."

Katy said: "The administrators have confirmed that no offers have been made that would result in the transfer of the company’s stores or staff.

"Of course, those job losses are in addition to the proposed job losses at the Amazon site in Gourock, which is also in the west of Scotland.

"I am very grateful to the minister for his offer to discuss the creation of a task force."

She subsequently pointed out that as well as ensuring that every support is provided to any staff affected, the Scottish government 'must prevent more buildings from becoming empty in town centres in the west of Scotland'.

MSP Tom Arthur responded: "Absolutely. I thank Katy Clark for the constructive way in which she has engaged on the issue. 

"She makes a very important point about the cumulative effect in the west of Scotland of recent announcements.

"The Scottish government is taking a range of action through their retail industry leadership group and progressing a town centre action plan. 

"I am co-chairing the first meeting of the town centre action plan forum with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. 

"We are also progressing proposals around community wealth building. That will help to ensure that we see a greater concentration of economic activity in our town centres. 

"One way in which that will be supported is to have a bigger population in our town centres; increasing population density in our town centres is vital to secure the demand for local services, including retail."