JOBS are at risk at Johnstons of Elgin in the Borders.

The cashmere specialist has warned that 23 staff roles are under threat at its Hawick mill and Innerleithen premises.

Further jobs are expected to go at the firm's head office in Elgin, which also has a satellite site in Walkerburn.

Simon Cotton, CEO of Johnstons of Elgin, said: “While Johnstons of Elgin has strong long-term prospects, to meet the significant short and medium-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic we are restructuring the business.

"This reflects the new realities we are facing with stores in most of our markets around the world having been closed for several months and now faced with reducing high stock levels.

"Our community in Hawick is at the heart of our business as well as the incredible skills and capabilities of our team, therefore this is not a decision we have taken lightly, but out of necessity to protect the long-term health of the business.

"We will do everything within our power to mitigate the number of redundancies but we know that this will be an unsettling time for our workforce and our intention is to manage this process quickly and fairly.

"Our priority will be to maintain our exceptional skills and capabilities so that we can build on these in the future as the situation starts to improve again."