A businessman with interests throughout Courier country has racked up debts of up to £8 million, it has been claimed.
Arthur Harris has been involved with a string of failed business ventures many of them in Tayside and Fife.
The businessman’s highest-profile casualty came this month, when his supermarket chain Haldanes hit the buffers.
However, he has also had high-profile involvement with doomed firms including deli chain McLeish Brothers and petrol firm Osprey Forecourts.
Around 600 jobs are under threat following the collapse of Haldanes.
Mr Harris was chief executive of the group, which had 26 UK stores including outlets in Arbroath, Forfar and Crieff. When he set up the firm less than two years ago it was the first new supermarket chain in Britain for 27 years.
Mr Harris said he was “devastated” by its demise and insisted his thoughts were “with the employees.”
The firm bought most of its stores from the Co-operative, which was forced to sell shops by the Office of Fair Trading after acquiring Somerfield.
However, Haldanes is not the only firm to have been operated by Mr Harris. In fact the businessman has been involved in countless ventures in Fife and Tayside many of which ultimately struggled to survive.
He was a director of the Kingdom of Fun children’s play centre in Dunfermline which was wound up in 2009. Reports suggest the once award-winning attraction was in the red by more than £2 million when it went to the wall.
Mr Harris was also the chief executive of Osprey Forecourts, which had a dozen filling stations across Scotland most of them in Tayside and Fife. Some 60 jobs went when they were forced to close in 2004.
Osprey Forecourts was founded in 2000 with the intention of developing a network of petrol stations and convenience stores but the end came four years later after a period dogged by supply problems.
Mr Harris had resigned as chief executive a year before the collapse to “concentrate on other opportunities.”
He was also involved with forecourt operator Dolphin Retail, which owned 22 stations across the UK but crashed in 2009.
Meanwhile, documents reveal Mr Harris was a director with Dundee-based delicatessen chain McLeish Brothers. The chain which supported 10 stores and 175 staff went into administration two-and-a-half years ago as a result of problems in the credit crunch.
The company was bought by its then new owners in 2007.
Mr Harris was heavily criticised last week when, despite problems facing Haldanes, he flew directors to the French Riviera for a business meeting. The beleaguered boss insists he poured a lot of his own money into Haldanes and was determined to make it a success.
“Our thoughts are with our employees who find themselves facing an uncertain future,” Mr Harris said. “We would like to publicly thank them for their efforts and loyalty.”