TWO of the three Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) yards have been bought out of administration for £850,000.
BiFab, which has yards in Burntisland and Methil in Fife and one on the Isle of Lewis, went into administration at the end of last year after Scottish Government ministers ruled out nationalising the company – two years after a deal that saw Canadian firm DF Barnes acquire the business for just £4.
The Scottish Government, which became a minority shareholder in BiFab, went on to invest £37 million in it.
Yesterday’s deal saw Harland & Wolff (Methil) Limited, a subsidiary of InfraStrata Plc, take on the Methil and Lewis sites.
InfraStrata chief executive, John Wood, said: “With this acquisition we now have a footprint in Scotland, which is the hotbed for major wind farm projects as well as for shipbuilding programmes.
“I wish to warmly welcome the personnel whom we have taken on at Methil and Arnish and I am confident that we will turn these facilities into highly successful businesses that generate jobs and investment into their local economies in due course.”
Gavin Park, restructuring director at administrators Deloitte, said: “We are pleased to have agreed a sale of the business and the majority of the assets of BiFab to InfraStrata. This includes the transfer of all employees and licenses to occupy sites in Methil and on the Isle of Lewis.”
Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop said it was a welcome development for the future of the workforce and added: “The workforce has an important role to play in the future of manufacturing in Scotland and I look forward to working with the new owner as it forges a new future for the company.
“This is welcome news for the local communities in Fife and the Western Isles.
“The Scottish Government will also engage with Forth Ports, the owner of the Burntisland yard, to help secure the best possible outcome for that yard.”
Trade unions also welcome the deal, but demanded concrete action from the Scottish and UK governments to support the offshore wind sector, in which the BiFab yards had previously been involved.
Pat Rafferty, from Unite Scotland and the GMB’s Gary Smith said: “We have always believed that the BiFab yards, and indeed yards and ports all over Scotland, are uniquely placed to capture the benefits of the offshore wind sector.
“However, the story so far has been one of government failure – thousands of jobs and billions of pounds have been outsourced around the world when Scottish communities should have been benefitting from these contracts.
“Now the Scottish and UK governments have been given a reprieve and they need to step-up and support the new ownership.”
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