During the recent meeting of the new owners of the former Quinn Glass and union and community representatives, Vidrala CEO confirmed that there were no plans to close the factory – stating that they were: “… here to stay”.
The CEO of Vidrala met with union and community representatives in Derrylin last week to outline the company’s long-term plans, and has pledged to invest over GBP 200 million in the former Quinn Glass Derrylin and Cheshire plants – sending out a strong signal that it’s here to stay.
Staff and the local community feared the sale would mean closure of the glass factory, which was dismissed by the CEO Gorka Schmitt who said his company would not invest EUR 408.6 million ‘for nothing’.
“It’s our biggest acquisition to date and we have been in the business for 50 years,” he told reporters.
“You don’t invest EUR 408 million into a business and not want to see it in the long-term future so it’s seems a little strange that we would be here only for the short-term.
“You won’t buy something if you don’t think it will have a great future. The glass company has a very young plant and organisation and paired with the experience of Vidrala means it will be a better future for both.
“In the next five years we will have to invest another EUR 200 million in this project because the furnaces have to be rebuilt.”
Adrian Curry, managing director of the former Quinn Glass, dismissed rumours that the new company would close the plant branding them as “nonsense”.
He said the factory has a ‘bright future’ with the new owners and that changes would always spark questions from staff.
He added: “There was a lot of information put out on social media that caused a lot consternation among staff but we met them and explained the situation with them and that Vidrala were the preferred bidder. I think the staff got themselves comfortable with the realisation there were going to be changes.
“I think Gorka said as well that he had discussions with QBRC (consortium group), to me it was a very open process, we ended up with five firm funded offers on the table. Any one of those five could have bought the business and my understanding was that none of those were a QBRC offer.”