BOSSES of a meat processing plant that rejected a £2 million bailout from the Scottish Government have said it would cost up to £100m to save the plant.
Vion Food, owner of Hall's of Broxburn, which employs 1700 staff at its West Lothian plant, said it regretted having to turn down the offer but the money would not have solved its problems.
The decision was met with anger and dismay by politicians who have been battling to save the plant, which makes pork sausages and haggis.
Finance Secretary John Swinney said he was disappointed the firm did not accept the "substantial proposal".
The Scottish Government and its partners on a taskforce set up to try to save the plant were willing to buy the West Lothian factory and lease it back to the parent company.
Mr Swinney said: "I have formulated a substantial proposal that would see the Government, working with West Lothian Council and Scottish Enterprise, purchasing and leasing back the Hall's site on a commercial basis to enable significant capital investment to be made.
"Along with the leader of West Lothian Council, Councillor John McGinty, I put these proposals last week to Peter Bekkers, the chief operating officer at Vion International.
"Vion – while welcoming the innovative nature of the proposals – has advised the taskforce the proposal is not sufficient to be acceptable to the company."
Potential savings of £4m had also been identified, Mr Swinney said. However, the Finance Secretary said two other unnamed parties have expressed an interest in the business.
Mr Swinney said buying the food factory would have cost about £2m and the proposed rescue plan was "essentially a commercial transaction".
"What the public sector would have done would have been to partner the revival of the plant and to ensure long-term investment could be delivered into the plant," he said.
A spokesman for Vion said: "We greatly appreciate the serious offer of support the Scottish Government has made and thank them for the significant assistance they have provided since the start of the consultation process.
"However, given the scale of the losses at Hall's of £79,000 per day, and the complexity and inefficient layout of the factory, we regret that we are unable to accept this support.
"It would be wrong to accept the offer of public money knowing it is significantly below the amount required to resolve the core legacy problems at the site and would only serve to delay any potential decision regarding closure.
"The Broxburn plant is competing against much larger, modern plants across Europe and to establish such a facility on the site would cost in excess of £100m and take up to two years of mounting losses to complete. Our focus now must be on how we can best support our people through the coming weeks."
Lothians Labour politicians Graeme Morrice, MP, and Neil Findlay, MSP, reacted with disappointment.
Mr Morrice said: "The com-pany's decision really calls into question its commitment to saving the plant and suggests that its senior management had already decided to walk away."
Mr Findlay said: "I am shocked and angry at this news."
Mr Swinney added that he believed it would cost Vion up to £25m to close the plant.
The 90-day consultation period between the owners and staff closes on October 3.
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