Official: 300 jobs at risk as Britishvolt appoints administrator
Britishvolt aimed to secure funding for battery R&D and manufacturing businesses in the UK
The troubled battery start-up has filed to appoint administrators, having failed to secure a buyer
Britishvolt has filed to appoint administrators and made the majority of its circa-300 staff redundant, in a major blow to the future of UK manufacturing.
The company's administration and insolvency will be handled by EY, a spokesperson confirmed.
The news was broken to staff in a company-wide meeting at 12:00pm today, following failed efforts to sell a majority stake and secure the firm's long-term sustainability.
The sale talks, which began last week, failed after the board decided there were no viable bids to keep the company afloat, reported the BBC. They were reported to have been held with three investment groups: one linked to Indonesia, with zero history in manufacturing according to a previous BBC report; one comprising existing investors; and one last-minute bid from a British consortium.
A deal with existing shareholders got investor support, but Britishvolt's main creditors objected to it, chairman Peter Rolton reportedly told staff.
Britishvolt has been in the grips of a months-long run of problems, including narrowly avoiding collapse in November after securing several million pounds in funding from mining firm Glencore. Combined with a voluntary pay cut for its near-300 staff, this gave Britishvolt sufficient funding to survive until early December.
At the point of insolvency, Britishvolt will cease trading and its management team will be relieved of control by the administrators. Britishvolt could yet be bought out of administration by a third party, although no potential buyer has yet come forward with an expression of interest.
The company was previously prepared to enter administration after the UK government rejected a request for £30 million in advance funding to prevent its collapse. It had been promised £100m to build its £3.8bn battery gigafactory through the Automotive Transformation Fund, but has not hit the construction milestones required to unlock the cash.
Repeated requests for funding – dwindling in value each time; from £30m to £11.5m and then £3m – sowed doubt in the Government over the company’s viability, reported the BBC.
As previously reported, one of the key issues affecting Britishvolt was that it lost around £3m per month on staff pay, yet isn’t expected to generate revenue until 2025. An exodus of 25 staff since November – mostly senior managers – reported by start-up tracking publication Sifted may help Britishvolt to cut its outgoings. Britishvolt’s spokesperson acknowledged to Autocar that there has been “some attrition of staff”; figures from LinkedIn suggest a 12% reduction in headcount over the past six months.
Britishvolt was formed in 2020 with the goal of building a battery gigafactory to supply Britain’s automotive industry from 2023.
However, it's yet to complete work on its Blyth site – arguably its most valuable asset, given its access to a seaport, renewable energy and proximity to the UK’s automotive heartland.
At the time of writing, the only UK gigafactory to have secured deals with a global cell supplier and a major manufacturer is Envision AESC’s planned expansion at Nissan’s Sunderland factory. It promises an output of 11GWh from 2024, eventually rising to 38GWh, supplying batteries for the replacement for the Nissan Leaf.
According to a report by the Faraday Institution, the UK will need around 100GWh of battery supply – equivalent to five gigafactories – to satisfy demand for electric vehicles. This will rise to nearly 200GWh – 10 factories – by 2040.