Administrators have been called in to McLeish, one of Dundee's best-known retailers.

The company has ten shops across Scotland with three stores and their head office in Dundee.

McLeish had employed 205 staff in its ten shops across Scotland.

It is believed that of the 175 planned redundancies, 80 will come from units in Dundee and Fife.

The three stores to remain open are Whitehall Street in Dundee, Schoolhill in Aberdeen and the shop in Inverurie.

Staff from the stores were in shock over the announcement and many had only heard the news through reports in the local media.

The company was originally a butchery, fishmongers and grocery business, McLeish Brothers, and was rebranded as a Scottish delicatessen when it was bought by new owner Stanley Morrice in 2006.

The administrators arrived at the head office at 11am on Monday and by lunchtime some stores had been closed.

Administrator Iain Fraser, of Tenon Recovery in Aberdeen, told the Dundee Courier: "McLeish Brothers quickly captured a niche in the market as a specialist Scottish delicatessen and was on track to achieve its goals of establishing a footprint in most major UK towns and cities.

"We think the business could appeal to an existing retail entrepreneur or national chain that wants to acquire a strong brand and access to a valuable network of Scottish food suppliers established by the company."

Staff have said they were due to get their pay cheques on Friday but have now been told they will not get their monthly salary payment.

A member of staff, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We haven't been paid for the past four weeks and we've been told that we're not getting paid now.

"We didn't have a clue when we went in this morning, and to hear it on the radio and read it in the press was not nice at all, to not even be told by Stanley Morrice that it was happening was very upsetting."