Company linked to Britishvolt buyout is shut down by High Court

Tom Keighley
·2-min read
The former Britishvolt site at Cambois, Northumberland
-Credit: (Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)


The company which had ambitions to revive job-creating gigafactory plans on the former Britishvolt site in Northumberland has been shut down by the High Court.

Recharge Production UK, owned by Australian businessman David Collard, whose company Scale Facilitation agreed to buy the business and assets of the failed battery start-up last year, has been hit by a winding up order in the wake of action taken by a former employee. Documents show Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Briggs ordered the London-registered firm to be shut down following a petition by Tom Cowling, who was Britishvolt's chief governance officer and a board director, and is described as a creditor of Recharge Production UK.

The move marks the final chapter for one of Mr Collard's troubled companies, after months of speculation over the fate of an £8.6m deal agreed with Britishvolt administrators EY last year for certain parts of the business. Recharge had touted plans to take on Britishvolt's 3,000-job gigfactory ambitions at the Cambois site.

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But the plans have so far amounted to nothing amid several missed deadlines on Recharge's part following the agreement and difficulties faced by Scale Facilitation, which was subject to a tax fraud investigation, legal action taken by employees and a near striking off the register of companies.

The insolvency experts at EY handling Britishvolt's affairs recently extended the administration of the start-up until January 2025 in order to give it more time to complete the deal with Recharge or find an alternative buyer. EY indicated Recharge was still the preferred bidder though it revealed there had been discussions with several other interested parties.

Meanwhile the former Blyth Power Station coal years site on which the gigafactory was to be built has been sold to a US investment company Blackstone that plans to develop a series of data centres through its subsidiary QTS. Blackstone agreed a deal with receivers appointed by Britishvolt lender Katch Fund Solutions, which owns the 235-acre site. Northumberland County Council, which has an option to buy back the site to protect its job-creating properties, has agreed to amend the option for a £110m payment that is intended to go towards job creation schemes in the county.

Though smaller in job creation terms than the previous gigafactory plans, there are hopes Blackstone and QTS' plans will boost the region’s digital economy and and create thousands of construction jobs over a number of years. Making the winding up order against Recharge Production, Judge Briggs ordered Mr Cowling's costs to be paid out of Recharge's assets.

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