Gio Benedetti, one of Scotland's best-known entrepreneurs, wound up his final trading business with substantial creditor debts and a pension scheme set to fall into the Pension Protection Fund, it has emerged.

Deloittes was last week appointed liquidators to the former Wallace Cameron, eight weeks after Mr Benedetti's group auditors Campbell Dallas announced that the millionaire father of violin virtuoso Nicola had retired from business after 50 years, with the successful sale of his final venture.

Campbell Dallas said on June 4 that VGroup International, a motor accessories supplier, had bought the North Lanarkshire-based first aid kit manufacturer and would continue to trade from Wishaw as Wallace Cameron International, with Mr Benedetti later telling The Herald that "most of the jobs would be retained". He did however add that Wallace Cameron "was not my best scenario". His adviser says the entrepreneur "lost millions" in the venture.

Now Martyn Nash, founder of VGroup, has said he intends to keep the business in Scotland and retain "as many staff as possible", but has revealed that VGroup bought Wallace Cameron's assets prior to its liquidation.

"The company was highly loss-making previously and had left a considerable amount of debt with suppliers," Mr Nash said. "The picture wasn't great. The debt sits with the old company but we have had to pick up quite a substantial amount of historic creditor debt."

Mr Nash said creditors included overseas and local Lanarkshire suppliers and the total sums were "over £1m".

He added: "Promises had been made about cash coming in.....which in our view were completely unfounded. Lots of people have had their fingers burned and I think a lot of people are upset." He said employment at Wishaw had been 98 when sale discussions began but numbers had fallen to 78 by the time the deal was done and were now at 60.

Mr Benedetti said: "We were trying to secure the jobs, up until a week before I was still trying to save the business, right to the end, but there were no takers really. After 50 years in business this is the first time in 15 companies that this has happened - imagine how I feel about it."

Filings at Companies House show that on January 8, Wallace Cameron was released from a security held by Lloyds TSB, on February 20 Mr Benedetti was appointed company secretary, and on April 18 Wallace Cameron changed its company articles to allow a sole director, Mr Benedetti. On May 29 Wallace Cameron changed its name to Bikecloud.

On June 10, according to the Edinburgh Gazette, Bikecloud petitioned the Court of Session for the winding up of the company and the appointment of a liquidator.

Meanwhile, a shelf company created in Edinburgh in January had changed its name on May 29 to Wallace Cameron International, and on July 5 it assumed the old Wallace Cameron's Wishaw address.

After court process, Chris McKay of Deloittes was finally appointed last week.

David Hunter of Campbell Dallas, who handled the sale, said it had achieved "the maximum amount of money" and that Mr Benedetti was responsible through a personal guarantee for any shortfall to the company's bank, which ranked ahead of other creditors.

Mr Hunter said the deal had been a "pre-sale" which had been notified to the liquidator. He went on: "The biggest problem in Wallace Cameron was we had a final salary pension scheme with a huge deficit." The scheme with a £1m shortfall would be dealt with by the liquidator who would probably look to the Pension Protection Fund, Mr Hunter said.

On Mr Nash's claims, he said: "Gio did the best possible deal he could to protect the creditors....to make sure as many as possible were paid by the new company."

He claimed VGroup had reduced their buying price by a factor of four to reflect the debt liabilities.

Mr Hunter could not put a figure on the liabilities but said he did not believe there was ill-feeling. "Creditor balances have reduced and no creditors have phoned this office."

Mr Nash, however, responded: "We started negotiating early in May and the price didn't change at all. Categorically our agreement was for a fee which was paid on the day, there was no agreement to put money aside for creditors."

Mr Hunter said some payment of creditors was "an understanding".

On claims of unfounded promises, Mr Hunter said the company had applied unsuccessfully for support from the Business Growth Fund at the end of 2012, when Mr Benedetti had also injected new capital loaned by the bank under personal guarantee, but trading had then become difficult and the business had been marketed for sale in February. Mr Benedetti had lost millions, Mr Hunter said.

Mr Benedetti, 69, made his name creating the biggest dry cleaning plant in Europe at Kilwinning in Ayrshire, which he sold to Initial for £30m at today's prices, and in 2007 he sold a cling film business for a gain of £17.5m. Companies House filings show that holding company Benedetti International, founded in 1996 and with turnover averaging £36m for its first decade and £13m since, posted a core pre-tax profit only once, recording pre-tax losses totalling £23m over the other years.

In 2011 Wallace Cameron, whose products are listed by the likes of Marks & Spencer, Argos and Tesco, employed 140, and writing in the accounts Mr Benedetti emphasised its "strong market position" and international growth potential. From 2008 to 2011 it accounted for almost all of Benedetti International, which in those years recorded pre-tax losses totalling £400,000.

Mr Hunter commented: "The holding company was used as a research and development company where new products were investigated and developed, then spun out, what you are seeing there is quite normal."