Deadline day for Cockburns

POTENTIAL buyers have until today to table offers for the country's oldest surviving wine merchant and administrators say there has been some interest.

By The Newsroom

Published 3rd Feb 2010, 08:59 BST

Updated 3rd Feb 2010, 10:47 BST

Edinburgh-based Cockburns of Leith, which has gone into administration, once supplied Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.

Administrators Ernst & Young, who were called in last Friday, said they had received some interest from suitors.

Increased competition from supermarkets and poor economic conditions led to the company's collapse.

The wine importing business was founded in Leith by Robert Cockburn in 1796.

Charles Dickens Edinburgh