THE last two companies interested in taking over Greenock’s closure-threatened Texas Instruments plant have pulled out — and it now seems set to definitely close with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Texas Instruments (TI) announced in January last year that they would shut the semiconductor factory by 2019 and transfer work to ‘more cost effective’ plants in Germany, Japan and the United States, removing an estimated 572 jobs to the Scottish economy, including 318 direct positions and 45 contractors.

But a task force formed to try and save the plant soon attracted a number of interested parties.

Five companies were initially looking at taking over the site.
Three abandoned interest a couple of months ago, and the latest meeting of the emergency task force set up by Inverclyde Council to try to find a buyer heard that the remaining two had also said they did not want to go ahead with buying it.

Task force chairperson, council leader Stephen McCabe, described the development as ‘very disappointing’.

He said: “It’s looking increasingly unlikely that anyone will take over the plant as a going concern.

“There is no longer any ‘live’ interest in it.

“The company will continue to market the facility, although we don’t know for how long, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that further interest will emerge, but we now have to think about alternative uses for the site.

“Would TI keep the building or offer it to Riverside Inverclyde as a business base, for example?”

Cllr McCabe said the political climate of Brexit, the new Trump administration in America wanting more manufacturing to be done at home and the possibility of another independence referendum in Scotland was creating uncertainty for a possible takeover.

He said: “We now have to do everything possible to support the workers to get alternative employment. More than a hundred are doing courses to develop new skills, supported by TI and the council.

“The plant will continue operating well into 2018 because there is still a demand for its products, before the start of the run-down.”

Cllr McCabe has now asked council officers to prepare a report on an economic strategy for diversifying job opportunities in Inverclyde.

He said: “We want to look at making the local economy more resilient and less reliant on large companies.”

Scottish Government business minister, Paul Wheelhouse, was unable to attend the task force meeting in Greenock.

It’s believed that each year £2.1m would be taken out of the west of Scotland economy if the plant closes, and nearly £6.4m across the rest of the country.