Scots jobs saved after battery factory sold to Dutch firm

Jobs at a battery factory in the Highlands have been saved after it was sold during an administration process to a Dutch firm.

AMTE Power, which is based in Oxfordshire but has a manufacturing plant in Thurso, entered into administration in December.

Specialist business advisory firm FRP launched an “accelerated mergers and acquisitions process” to help find a buyer in an effort to save the company.

It was confirmed on Thursday that administrators completed the sale of the business and assets to Dutch ‘next generation’ battery technology firm LionVolt.

The sale enables the battery production facility at Thurso to be repurposed for producing LionVolt’s batteries and includes the transfer of 20 jobs based in Thurso.

However, the remaining 15 staff at Milton, England, have been made redundant.

Richard Bloomfield, director at FRP and joint administrator of AMTE Power Plc, said: “The acquisition by LionVolt presented the best opportunity to secure jobs and fulfil our statutory duties to creditors.

“The transaction follows an exhaustive sales process and search for new investment. Critically, it preserves a large number of jobs and provides a continuation of battery cell manufacturing in Scotland. We wish the team at LionVolt all the best for the future.

“We are working with the impacted staff at the AMTE Power site in Milton and will support them in their claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”

The company, which specialises in lithium ion batteries, previously announced plans for a multi-million pound site in Dundee in the summer – which bosses said would have provided over 200 jobs.