A WORLDWIDE search will be made to find a buyer for Greenock’s closure-threatened Texas Instruments’ plant, a senior Scottish Government minister has promised.

Fergus Ewing made the pledge yesterday after the first meeting of a special taskforce set up by Inverclyde Council to try to save the 365 jobs.

Texas claim the Greenock plant is not ‘cost effective’, and plan to shut it within three years and transfer the work to Germany, Japan and America before the end of 2018.

The meeting was attended by politicians from Inverclyde Council, Westminster and Holyrood, as well as representatives of Scottish Government agencies including Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International as well as the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mr Ewing said that, should any redundancies proceed, the government’s PACE (Partnership Action for Continuing Employment) initiative would support any affected employees. 

He said: “This is a blow to the local community and will be a very anxious time for employees and their families.

“The Scottish Government has been in touch with Texas Instruments and we will continue to work closely with the company to do all we can to secure a long-term future for the 365 jobs and manufacturing at the site.”

He described the meeting as ‘constructive’ and the aim is to find an alternative operator to keep the business going.

Mr Ewing confirmed that 27 staff engaged in high quality design work face redundancy in the short-term.

The Tele understands this will be by the end of April.

He and other members of the task force will meet Texas officials on February 17, when senior executives from their Dallas HQ are due in Greenock for talks.

Mr Ewing emphasised that the Scottish Government and Inverclyde Council will work closely together to engage constructively with the company.

He said: “We’re working very hard for the long-term future of Texas Instruments in whatever form at Greenock.

“The mood of the meeting was constructive and workmanlike.”

Asked how hopeful he is about a buyer being found, he replied: “It’s early days, but I’m an optimist. I’m hopeful, and the company has said they are desirous of finding an alternative operator and are engaging a specialist company to assist them in that objective. So that’s a plus point.

“It’s extremely rare for businesses to depart from a decision once they’ve made it, but that’s something we can explore. I want to reassure people that we will do absolutely everything we can to help.

“We will look all over the world for a buyer. That’s why we have Scottish Development International.

Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe said he did not underestimate the task of finding a buyer.

He said: “I don’t anticipate it will be easy, but we need to do all we can to support the workers.”

The next taskforce meeting will be early next month.