Novartis’ incoming new owners have told of their utmost confidence in attracting new operators to the “world-class” site.
A deal to buy the heavily invested South Humber Bank facility was revealed last week, with US-based International Process Plants launching a subsidiary to take it on.
Humber Industrials Ltd has been formed, with the backing of a New Jersey-headquartered business that has almost half a century’s experience in redeploying manufacturing assets.
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And while the remaining 212 jobs are set to go, with attractive redundancy packages being offered, there are strong hopes for a new chapter in the not too distant future - while options to sell and move elements may materialise.
Ronald Gale, chief executive of IPP, said: “We are very excited to acquire and transition this significant 170-acre, fully-integrated active pharmaceutical ingredient and speciality chemical site into a new and bright future. Given its unique manufacturing assets including substantial reaction capacity, desirable site infrastructure and attractive location, we are confident in the many new potential opportunities to redevelop and utilise the campus.
“With today’s on-shoring efforts due to long supply chains and supply insecurity across industries, we are very bullish on the future of this well-positioned site.”
The hammer-blow announcement that it was to close came from the Swiss headquarters back in 2018, and there have been two stays of execution when it came to final closure date, extending from 2020.
Last week saw the end of this year confirmed, bringing to a halt 71 years of continuous production.
Tony Field, managing director of IPP Europe, is directly involved in the undisclosed deal.
He said: “IPP was identified as the best option for the redevelopment of the Grimsby site due to its experience in providing a range of industrial redevelopments globally.
“Our mission is to repurpose idled industrial sites in support of the global manufacturing economy and local communities by the redeployment of the manufacturing assets. While the actual future use of this site remains to be determined, we are confident that the site capabilities and our experience will be a successful combination.
“Our mission for Humber Industrials is to redevelop the site facilities, just as we have in our award-winning project in Bromborough, as well as others in Liverpool and Billingham in the UK, and a number of additional sites by our team in North America and Europe which were all affected by similar site closures.
“Each of these successful projects now represent major time and cost savings to their new operators and provide employment and economic value to their local communities.”
Humber Industrials will deal with 170-acres of assets, featuring “three distinct main process manufacturing buildings” spanning more than half a million square feet.
They contain 90 reaction suites offering 900 cubic metres of volume, with 17 centrifuges, 26 dryer systems, three milling systems, ten solvent recovery systems, as well as modern laboratory and office suites.
Significant infrastructure including an on-site waste-water treatment facility, steam, electric, water, industrial gases, and natural gas connections are all seen as hugely positive to inward investors.
IPP said it aims to attract industries to reutilise these assets “both on-site and elsewhere as part of IPP’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and environmental impact through reusing idled equipment by repurposing”.
Decommissioning, cleaning and wind-down of operations is anticipated in early 2023, with a handover once complete.
Environmental mitigation land has also been gifted to the local authority by Novartis to aid further economic development.
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