ABF confirms plans to shut bioethanol plant

Thursday 26 June 2025 7:44 am

Related British Meals has confirmed plans to close its Yorkshire bioethanol plant regardless of the federal government coming into formal negotiations to rescue the positioning, in a blow to Labour’s new industrial technique.

The meals producer, which additionally owns the retail big Primark, stated it had now begun session with staff to impact an orderly wind-down, with purchases of wheat, used for the manufacturing course of, having ceased from 11 June.

That comes after the agency’s deadline of Wednesday for the federal government to supply a rescue bundle handed, with tons of of jobs now in danger.

“Except the federal government is ready to present each short-term funding of Vivergo’s losses and a longer-term resolution, we intend to shut the plant as soon as the session course of has accomplished and the enterprise has fulfilled its contractual obligations,” ABF stated, including that it could stop all manufacturing earlier than the top of its monetary 12 months on 13 September.

However the firm additionally stated the federal government had now “dedicated to formal negotiations to succeed in a sustainable resolution.” 

ABF stated the precarious monetary place of the plant, one among solely two of its form within the UK, had been “made considerably worse” by the UK’s commerce take care of the US, which can enable tariff-free US ethanol into the UK, consuming into its competitiveness.

“ABF has engaged in intensive discussions with the federal government to discover a monetary and regulatory resolution that might allow Vivergo to function on a worthwhile and sustainable foundation.”

In April, ABF CEO George Weston informed Metropolis AM the plant had been hamstrung by the federal government’s determination to double-count renewable gas certificates for abroad producers, which “offers them an unbeatable price benefit.” 

“We don’t consider that the federal government’s been obliged to do this, they’ve chosen to, and so they’ve put this enterprise in an unattainable place by the motion they’ve taken,” he stated.

“We actually are doing every little thing we will to avoid wasting that plant, we don’t need to mothball or shut it however we could also be compelled to.”

Issues on the Yorkshire plant, in addition to a normal downturn in sugar costs, helped push ABF’s sugar division to a lack of £122m for the six months to March, down from a revenue of £121m the earlier 12 months.

One other industrial technique blow

The plant is the second in as many days to announce closure plans after Sabic’s chemical substances plant on Teesside unveiled plans to shut on Wednesday, placing over 100 jobs in danger, in an embarrassing blow to the federal government’s new industrial technique plans, which have been printed on Monday.

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen stated: “We urgently want a correct response from authorities, beginning with a focused help bundle for affected staff and households, and a transparent plan for the way we retain and develop industrial jobs in areas like Teesside.

“That is one more symptom of a nationwide coverage failure. The chemical substances sector is a basis business – the lifeblood of our financial system within the North East – but it didn’t even function within the Authorities’s Industrial Technique this week. It’s past indefensible.”