Recharge Industries shares “bold” Britishvolt vision with North East business leaders

North East businesses and organisations met with Australian firm Recharge Industries to hear about their “bold” vision for Britishvolt and to discuss the significant business opportunities the project will bring.

Organised by the North East England Chamber of Commerce, discussions at the roundtable meeting, which took place in Newcastle on March 24 centred around research and development, partnership opportunities, recruitment and skills, regional regeneration and business culture.

Britishvolt entered into administration in January 2023 after failing to secure sufficient funding to build a £3.8bn electric car battery plant in Cambois, Northumberland. After a competitive and fast-moving administration process, Recharge Industries, a portfolio company of US based Scale Facilitation, completed acquisition earlier this month.

Scale Facilitation’s founder and chief executive, David A. Collard, shared his vision and business strategy for the recharged Britishvolt project with Chamber members. He also spoke about his belief that the gigafactory has the potential to become a major player in the international battery market.

He commented: “This will be a huge project for a long period of time, as energy transition is a growth market and it is not going to change. The UK has the potential to, and could become, the global experts in this field. The North East England Chamber of Commerce and the business community are a very important part of this.

“It’s vital that we have a strong regional support base and there are lots of global opportunity partnerships in this region. We need local, national and international partners to compete globally, and I want to see more local people and businesses involved in contracts.”

David said the Britishvolt brand name would remain, with the business initially focusing on batteries for energy storage. It is hoped the gigafactory will create 8,000 jobs on site and in the supply chain, with work due to start in six to 12 months.

John McCabe, chief executive, North East England Chamber of Commerce, added: “This is a huge opportunity for the North East. This transformative project has the potential to place the North East, and the UK, at the front of battery manufacturing.

“As well as creating thousands of jobs, it’s an opportunity to build a supply chain for other businesses in the region to play their part in our economic renewal. The North East has an incredibly skilled workforce and local partners, including the Chamber, are very eager to provide support for the project. These are incredibly exciting times for our region.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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