Plant to bring in staff

Mar 27 2008 Evening Gazette

RECRUITMENT is under way for scores of staff at Teesside’s new £250m bioethanol plant, which is on target to begin turning wheat into green fuel by 2009.

Ensus, which already has a management team in place at its headquarters in Yarm, said 70 permanent new jobs would be created at the site.

When fully operational, the plant will produce about 400m litres of bioethanol a year, which will be used as an additive in petrol.

The output represents a third of the UK’s anticipated demand for the fuel in 2010 and is claimed to represent a CO2 saving equivalent to taking around 300,000 vehicles off the road every year.

The plant will produce protein rich animal feed as a by-product, which will be sold back to farmers.

Production and maintenance technicians with other posts are set to be filled during 2008. More than 600 workers are already involved in construction.

Long-term, Ensus said the plant would help sustain up to 2,000 farming jobs over its anticipated 25-year lifetime.

John Billington, Ensus operations director, said: “It’s a massive investment for us and a very exciting project.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for those who choose to join us and build an organisation for the future which I am confident will deliver all our objectives and more. We’ve already had a lot of interest from people looking to join us.”