Scottish based food firm Baxters has annoounced that up to 80 jons are at risk at their Fochabers site.

Baxters said it was entering a period of consultation with workers at Fochabers, where it employs up to 700 people throughout the year.

Earlier this month they posted an after-tax loss of £379,000 for its last financial year, after £5.5 million of exceptional costs relating mainly to restructuring.

Baxters Food Group, which has a product range including soups, pickles, jams and Fray Bentos pies, recorded the loss as turnover surged by 40 per cent to £226 million on the back of its acquisition of US company Wornick, which provides military rations.

Audrey Baxter, who chairs Baxters and also holds the role of chief executive, declared that the results for the year to May 30, 2015 reflected costs relating to the acquisition of Wornick.

However, Ms Baxter signalled that the results for the current financial year would show the benefits of the deal to buy Wornick, which she hailed as “transformational” in terms of the size of the family-owned business. The accounts signal that the consideration paid for Wornick, which was acquired in October 2014, was £87.4m.