Ortak is to rise from the ashes and start over where it began – in Orkney.
The iconic jewellery company went into administration on March 28 last year, blaming the recession and the soaring cost of silver.
The business employed about 150 people, half of them in Orkney and the rest at shops in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Livingston, Stirling, Orkney, Newcastle and Sheffield.
It owed more than £3million at the time of its collapse, including about £900,000 to ordinary – mainly trade – creditors.
Manufacturing at the firm’s factory at Hatson ended earlier this year, while stores closed one by one in an effort to sell off stock.
But Ortak, promoted by celebrities such as singer Myleene Klass dancer Flavia Cacace and weather girl Cat Cubie is now poised for a comeback.
Today it re-opens its shop in Kirkwall town centre.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is providing a grant of £136,400 to Ortak Jewellery Ltd for the £506,000 project which has created fourteen new jobs initially and has the potential to create further employment in the future.
The new business is led by majority shareholder and managing director Michael Gardens, ex-production manager of the former Ortak company, and Alison Firth, a finance professional from Castletown.
The new partners purchased the brand, including the intellectual property rights, as well as the original designs and patterns of the jewellery moulds and drawings.
Production is being carried out at a former dental surgery on Great Western Road, Kirkwall which has been adapted to provide the necessary workstations.
“It is exciting taking over the new Ortak business and being able to retain the brand in Orkney,” Mr Gardens said.