The owner of Dundee’s two NISA stores said he is re-launching them in a new guise after a “nightmare” year.
The shelves in the once-popular supermarkets on Perth Road and Gray Street have been virtually empty for months, prompting confused locals to set up a Facebook page entitled ‘There’s nothing in NISA’.
Owner Iain Wilson has responded to the confusion, stating he is working hard to safeguard 20 jobs and launch the stores under a different name.
He said: “This is a local family run business that for the past few years has done exceptionally well having won umpteen awards and given thousands to local charities.
“However, 2016 turned into a bit of a nightmare year, the reason being — through no fault of our own — we had to split from our supplier.
“It turned into a difficult situation and we are trying to work our way out of it but it’s not an easy thing to do.
“We would like to thank the local community for the support they have given us and when we are launching our new stores, we would ask them to come back and make them great again.
“Unfortunately, we are not the only stores in Scotland that this has affected. Other retailers have gone bust as a result so we are fortunate to have survived.
“It’s not the way you expect to be treated by another company that you are in partnership with. However, it has happened now, and we are moving on.”
He added that there was no definitive timescale for the change but that they are working on solutions.
West End Councillor Fraser Macpherson said he believed the future of the Perth Road shop is important to those living in the area and hoped that a “resolution will come soon”.
Members of the Facebook group, which has close to 1300 likes, have been posting pictures of random solitary items when they appear on the shelves.
One post in the group shows a picture of the ‘wines of the world section’ featuring just a dozen or so bottles with the caption “must be a small world”, while others mocked up pictures of Walking Dead style zombies traipsing the aisles.