Campbeltown’s troubled wind turbine tower factory and most of its 130 jobs look to have been rescued, with a provisional deal to buy it announced by administrators Ernst & Young.
The accountants have been running the business since Skykon, its Danish owners, went bankrupt and said that Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), one of the factory’s biggest customers, was in line to buy it.
SSE has formed a joint venture, Wind Towers, with Marsh Wind Technology, a Hong Kong-based manufacturer. The venture has been named as the preferred bidder for the factory.
Andrew Davison, joint administrator at Ernst & Young, said there were a number of “significant” matters to resolve before any sale was completed, probably by the end of next month, but he hoped the announcement would be a milestone in efforts to save the plant.
The Skykon factory has been kept going by payments from German manufacturer Siemens for wind towers that are being supplied to SSE’s onshore Clyde wind farm in Lanarkshire.
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The Campbeltown site was visited yesterday by First Minister Alex Salmond, who welcomed the announcement. Ian Marchant, SSE’s chief executive, said that with the right business plan and management, the factory should be “a sustainable business in every sense”.