The arrival of John Swinney at Alexander Dennis in Larbert was a very big deal, writes Business Editor Ian McConnell, who reflects on the usual 'sad reality' when factory closures are announced.

Mondays can be relatively quiet days on the business news front but that was certainly not the case last week.

The week got off to a rip-roaring start, with two very big stories.

From early doors last Monday, we had the City’s reaction to the revelations over the weekend firstly that J Sainsbury was talking with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com about a sale of the supermarket group’s Argos business and then that these discussions had been terminated.

And it was not long before another major story broke.

The Scottish Government unveiled a support package aimed at saving bus builder Alexander Dennis’s closure-threatened Scottish operations.

As I observed in my column on this last Wednesday: “Having observed the very sad demise of many major manufacturing operations in Scotland over the decades, there tends to be precious little room for hope after closure plans are announced.

“The sentiments expressed by those striving........

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