Vivergo begins laying off staff after UK plant closes

Vivergo, one of the UK’s two bioethanol plants, has halted production and will begin laying off its 160 workers.
After weeks of discussions, the government confirmed on August 15 that it would not provide financial aid to the struggling bioethanol industry, which has come under heavy pressure from cheaper US ethanol imports.
Vivergo, owned by Associated British Foods, said that without support the plant would remain “heavily loss-making.” The company has therefore decided to shut the site completely, with all employees expected to leave and demolition scheduled by the end of the year.
The government explained that a bailout would not deliver value for taxpayers and would fail to address the sector’s deeper, long-term challenges.
Vivergo’s operations director, Alex Snowden, described the decision as “heartbreaking.”
“I’m local — I live just 10 minutes from the site,” he said. “It’s been a huge part of my life,” he told the BBC.
He added that staff are now essentially “emptying the last of our brewery as we wind down operations.”
Located near the Humber estuary, the plant processes locally grown wheat into bioethanol and produces high-protein animal feed pellets, mainly for dairy cattle, from the by-products.
Mr Snowden noted that the plant has faced many difficulties over the years and required “a lot of hard work,” but is currently operating efficiently—something that, he said, makes the closure even harder to accept.