Perthshire dry ice specialist thinks big and green after securing major funding

A Perthshire-based dry ice specialist has outlined significant growth plans after agreeing a multi-million pound funding package.

Established in 2011 and now run by brothers and directors Richard and Ed Nimmons, Dry Ice Scotland has grown to become a key UK dry ice manufacturing company, supplying high density dry ice pellets and slices to a range of sectors, including pharmaceutical and food distribution.

Dry ice has a wide variety of uses and applications, including airline catering, dry ice blasting, freeze drying as well as sample and vaccine distribution within the pharma sector.

Based in Perthshire, the firm is now investing more than £4 million in the development of a new production site near Dumfries. Just over £3m has been provided by Nash Business Capital, with the balance provided by a combination of grant funding and the company’s own resources.

Dry Ice Scotland directors Ed Nimmons and Richard Nimmons. Picture: David Johnstone Photography

The firm currently employs seven people and plans to recruit up to eight more staff over the next three years.

Michael Currie, corporate partner, and Gemma Perfect, commercial property partner, from law firm Aberdein Considine provided the company with legal support in relation to both the financing and property transaction.

Currie said: “Working with Ed and Richard has been a real pleasure, and it is hugely rewarding to be playing a part in the future of such an exciting and ambitious business.”

The new facility will be used for the capture, purification and liquefaction of food grade, renewable carbon dioxide (CO2) and production of dry ice. It will take the waste CO2 by-product from a nearby plant to produce liquid CO2 that is compressed into dry ice pellets and slices.

Production capacity is expected to reach some 8,000 tonnes per annum, with the company becoming one of the top three UK producers of dry ice.

Ed Nimmons said: “This project is a landmark in our long-term goal to decarbonise the dry ice industry by capturing and utilising local, renewable sources of food grade CO2.”

Fellow director Richard Nimmons added: “This is a major step forward for the UK to be 100 per cent reliable on domestic sources of food grade CO2 for dry ice manufacture, reducing transportation carbon footprint and insulating our customers from future CO2 shortages.”

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