The former head of the Army, Lord Dannatt, is spearheading an audacious plan to snap up a crucial manufacturing plant closed by its US owner.
Dannatt is fronting a group of UK-based investors to acquire CF Industries’ factory in Ince, Cheshire, which could save hundreds of jobs and help protect Britain’s carbon dioxide supplies.
CF Industries produces 60 per cent of Britain’s CO2 supplies as a by-product of agricultural fertiliser production.
Plan: Lord Dannatt is fronting a group of UK-based investors to acquire CF Industries’ factory in Ince, Cheshire
The gas is crucial in packing and preserving fresh food and salads. A threat to permanently close Ince and its sister factory at Billingham, Teesside in October last year forced Ministers to intervene with a bailout worth tens of millions of pounds.
But CF Industries announced the permanent closure of its Ince plant last month, blaming cost pressures. It will channel all its UK production through Teesside.
A spokesman for Dannatt said talks are at a ‘sensitive stage’.
CF Industries said it has ‘spoken with several parties’ but discussions have not yet ‘appeared likely’ to secure the plant’s future.
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