The company destroyed by its pension scheme

Many times over the years, we've highlighted the dangers of investing in companies with large pension deficits here at the Fool. Today, we saw an extreme example of what can happen when a pension scheme comes to dominate a company's financial affairs.

Dawson International is a small firm these days, with sales of around £40m, but its history stretches back 140 years and it's been listed on the stock market since the early 1970s. It produces cashmere from its base in Scotland, and it also has a US cashmere distribution business. It's perhaps still best known for its former ownership of Pringle of Scotland, which it bought in 1967 and sold in 2000.