Agrochemical manufacturer Syngenta has begun a formal consultation with trade unions and employees over the proposed closure of its site at Grangemouth, placing 377 jobs at risk.
The company stated that no final decision has been taken and that alternatives will be considered during the consultation period.
Syngenta said it had been reviewing its Grangemouth operations for some time against a backdrop of growing international competition and difficult energy conditions. According to the company, the site costs significantly more to run than its other production facilities, a gap that has persisted despite sustained efforts to narrow it.
The Grangemouth plant produces active ingredients used in crop protection products and has a long history in the town’s chemical sector, having previously operated under ICI and later Zeneca before Syngenta was formed in 2000 from the merger of the agribusiness divisions of Novartis and AstraZeneca. The Swiss-headquartered group was acquired by ChemChina in 2017 and is now ultimately owned by Chinese state company Sinochem following the merger of the two state-owned firms. The site received more than £2 million in Scottish Enterprise funding a little over a year ago.
Responding to the announcement, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport Stephen Flynn said in a statement issued by the Scottish Government: “My thoughts are with the workers, their families and the local community who will be affected by this decision.”
Flynn said ministers had told the company’s board of their opposition to any reduction or closure at the site. “We made clear to Syngenta’s board our strong opposition to any potential scale down or closure of their Grangemouth site,” he said, adding: “It is therefore extremely disappointing to hear that the board has taken the commercial decision to enter a consultation period on the closure of the site despite the Scottish Government’s commitment to exploring support for its continued operations.”
The cabinet secretary also turned his attention to Westminster and the £200 million pledged by the UK Government for Grangemouth in 2024. “During this period of consultation, I sincerely hope that the UK Government will now provide some of the £200 million committed to Grangemouth, since not a single penny has yet been allocated from that fund promised in 2024. I will continue to press the UK Government on this,” he said.
Grangemouth’s industrial base has come under sustained pressure in recent years. Petroineos ended crude oil refining at the town’s refinery in 2025, converting the facility into a fuel import terminal with the loss of around 400 jobs. The UK and Scottish governments subsequently commissioned Project Willow, a study published in 2025 that identified a range of potential low-carbon projects intended to secure the long-term future of the industrial cluster.
According to the Scottish Government, its Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) initiative, which supports workers facing redundancy, is ready to assist those affected at Syngenta. “Our priority now is to ensure that the affected workers receive support, which is why the Scottish Government’s initiative for responding to redundancy situations, PACE, stands ready to help those who may be affected by redundancy,” Flynn said.
He added that he had been briefed by the company and intended to meet trade unions, local MSPs and UK Government representatives later on Thursday. “I have been briefed by the company, and aim to meet with the trade unions, local MSPs, and the UK Government later today,” he said.
I’m not sure how many more times you can be stabbed with the same knife before you realise it’s sharp.
If you allow your critical infrastructure and critical manufacturing to be majority owned by foreign companies expect it to be exploited for profit and then shutdown.. it’s not rocket science.
I disagree Jonathan, this was not bought for profit, it was bought to be shut down by a hostile State Actor, heavens I thought the French were bad, but the Chinese are playing a very dark game.
I would also say that the friendliness towards China by Cameron and Osbourne should be firmly shunted into the long grass and the Chinese given the High Port. See my visa comment below.
This is where a Labour Government can really make a difference.
Buy this, the Grangemouth Refinery into public ownership. High Port the traditional Civil Servants – they are useless, recruit a ‘business’ Civil Servant to take overall control and modernise both plants to make them internationally competitive – that includes a remit to decouple Electricity from Gas and deliver those energy savings to business first.
Then, honestly, treat China as a hostile State, I was incredulous that a Chinese national applying from China for a 6 month visa, receives an automatic upgrade to 2 years without payment and generally, rather than go through the complexity route, they are waived through to visit Sellafield – can’t believe it.
China needs to be up there with Russia when it comes to issuing visas and all I can say is write to your MPs and complain.
Sensible approach
Yes & stop hitting UK manufacturing with all sorts of net zero charges that their foreign competitors do not have to pay. Andy Xi Burnham will cut business rates for pubs by 20%. Why not cut business rates by 20% for UK manufacturing?
I get the it was bought by a Chinese Company bit then shut down, but other than that, what has this got to do with defense? Honest question, not being awkward.
Well, after Cameron and Osbourne, this Country has been quite open to Chinese State involvement in our GDP through their companies.
People complain about the closure of the high street but do not factor in that everytime they buy next day deliver TEMU, no taxes are levied on TEMU upto a purchase of £138. Buy Chinese, cheap goods, next day delivery… all is good, right?
Then their State owned companies take over our companies, rip off the Intellectual Property Rights, reproduce it in China as a subsidized price and sell it back into the UK while closing the UK business.
This is openly sabotaging our manufacturing companies and gifting our technology the Chinese State.
Farage as in garage, might get my vote, albeit a .01%, if he came out with a strong anti-China statement – I would suggest he purports to be pro-UK, purports. To be clear, people like Daniele who support him need their heads examined, he is no saviour of the United Kingdom and only cares about himself.
Everything should be done to prevent any Chinese involvement in the UK and when they open the Embassy, I have a solution to our security concerns. Identify all the Chinese – every last one and then declare them persona non grata and High Port Chicoms back to China.
Up there with the Russians – the good Russians and Chicoms are dead Russians and Chicoms.
I was made redundant, along with hundreds of colleagues, from a factory in Edinburgh twenty years ago. The concern was originally Scottish, bought by a foreign group, including the intellectual property and run at a constant profit for around sixty years on the same site before they offshored us. That foreign group was US-based.
Point being, there doesn’t have to be some sinister hidden motive in this context. Sheer corporate greed and bean counting works just fine, and in Chinese industry and commerce, it’s not just every penny that’s a prisoner, it’s every fraction of a penny. They have become absolute masters of maximising margins, and they are even more ruthless than our “friends in the US”, which is saying something….
I’m sorry you lost your job.
I have no positive thoughts for the French – what they did to GEC in Preston and Birmingham among other places is disgusting – as you say, corporate greed. However, the Chinese are taking us over and I object to that and it must be stopped.
Are they just closing the site down or are they closing and selling? If selling then buy it, if just closing down then repossess it, in either case keep it running, public/gov backed enterprise.
While we’re at it may aswell cut to the chase and take any other strategically important Chinese owned businesses aswell.