An American firm has shelved its plans to come to Inverness with the promise of more than 120 jobs.
Alex Salmond last year announced that Daktari Diagnostics was planning coming to the Highland capital with Scottish government assistance through a £2.2million grant.
However the company has decided to put off any such move, and the grant offer has lapsed.
Daktari make diagnostic equipment for detecting and monitoring diseases such as HIV, and which is particularly useful for remote areas with limited medical cover.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise confirmed that the move to Inverness was off and said that the reason was that when the announcement was made last April, the company began to recieve much larger orders than anticipated and decided to focus on serving this upsurge from its existing production base.
An HIE spokesman said that they remain in touch with the company and it continues to express an interest in “pursuing opportunities to establish a presence in the North of Scotland.”
Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stewart Nicol said the news was very disappointing as the calibre of jobs was just what Inverness was looking for.
