'Just about finished': Grangemouth community reeling from refinery closure as businesses face the 'impossible'

Ian Simpson was born and raised in the shadow of Grangemouth refinery, and vividly remembers only the site’s halcyon days as a child growing up in the 1970s.

“It was buzzing, there were huge big grounds with BP football facilities, and there were thousands of men working in the plant,” he recalled. “All the pubs and shops were thriving, and people were moving here from the west coast.”

Now aged 51, the vast oil refinery remains integral to Mr Simpson’s life. He is the sales manager of CTS Trade Supplies, a firm specialising in workwear, personal protective equipment, and power tools.

Based in the town’s Powdrake industrial estate, a five-minute walk from the Petroineos site, the refinery is a major catalyst for the company’s sales. “We deal with Petroineos subcontractors every day, and whenever they carry out repairs or maintenance on the plant, we get a lot of work,” he explained. “It looks like we’ll lose out on that now.”

The main tower at the Grangemouth refinery, which will close in the second quarter of next year. Picture: Michael Gillen | Michael Gillen/NationalWorld

Mr Simpson, like many other people in Grangemouth, is trying to come to terms with Thursday’s announcement that Britain’s oldest oil refinery is to close by June next year with the loss of around 400 jobs. His father worked at the site for 30 years, and his family’s story is similar to many in the town. It is a place entwined with the refinery, where everyone knew someone who worked there.

Those days are nearing an end, and the fallout is only beginning. In a part of Scotland that is no stranger to economic challenges, the risks are immense.

Grangemouth has segments in both the top and bottom segments of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, suggesting a high degree of inequality that could be exacerbated by the closure. In the wider Forth Valley area, the problems are even graver.

In the Bainsford and Langlees area of Falkirk, 37 per cent of the working age population are categorised as income deprived, and 35 of the town’s datazones are among the worst 20 per cent in all of Scotland.

Petroineos has announced the Grangemouth oil refinery will close next year. Picture: Michael Gillen

The immediate concern in Grangemouth is for those at risk of redundancy, and the knock-on effect for the myriad small and micro businesses who make a living in the refinery’s locus. They include the Braw Scran Van, run by Sharleen McCabe and her sister Lee. Under their aunt’s stewardship, the hot food outlet has been a fixture near the refinery for decades. The sisters took it over earlier this year and are now facing the same uncertainty as the rest of the community. 

“It’s not good for Grangemouth, it’s definitely not good at all for the people working there and the businesses around,” said Ms McCabe. “A lot of our customers are truckers, but we also have workers. The closure is really bad for the local economy.”

Further along Bo’ness Road, a strip of houses and businesses that runs directly off the Petroineos complex, lies the Abbotsinch bar and restaurant, a venue that has long been popular with Grangemouth’s staff. Russell Moodie, who has worked there for nine years, said the refinery provided a steady flow of revenue. 

“You don’t get the workers coming in for pints like you used to, but we still get a lot of people from Petroineos coming in for business lunches,” he said. “It’s not work meetings, you get the staff coming in to mark someone's retirement or another person’s birthday, we get big tables of them quite regularly. We’re going to lose all that if the Petroineos site shuts.”

Despite a three point investment plan being announced by the Scottish and UK governments, Mr Moodie, 40, said there was a mood in the town that Grangemouth is “just about finished” in the wake of the announcement. 

Ironically, this year should have been the occasion for another celebration, given it marks the centenary of Grangemouth’s opening. Instead, the fear and apprehension that followed the announcement by Petroineos - which came on the same day as Falkirk-based bus manufacturer, Alexander Dennis, announced 160 jobs were at risk - is being felt way beyond the refinery gates.

As is befitting a facility of such scale, the plant plays a vital role in the wider Scottish economy. Research produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers only last month estimated that Grangemouth supports 2,822 jobs across Scotland, a network that includes over 660 roles in the finance and business sector, over 350 construction posts, and nearly 300 jobs across distribution and catering. 

Business in Grangemouth have expressed concern at the impact of the refinery closure. Picture: Michael Gillen

While suppliers of the refinery are distributed widely across the UK, there are a few hot-spots where purchases are concentrated, such as Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow.

The Federation of Small Businesses Scotland has pointed out the knock-on effect on the supply chain will hit firms “across the length and breadth of the country”. In Glasgow, the owner of one utilities firm that has worked with Grangemouth for years said it was now impossible to plan ahead. “You have to hope it’s not going to be as bad as it looks, but equally, you have to prepare for the worst,” said the businessman, who did not wish to be named. “We’re looking at losing five, six-figure sums annually.”

In Grangemouth, those members of the community who recall its industrial heartland days are despondent. Margaret Kerr was born at the tail end of the 1950s and remembers growing up in the “boom years” when the town’s population grew from 15,000 in 1950 to nearly 25,000 by the start of the 1970s. From her perspective, the refinery closure is hard to comprehend.

“It was a fine place to live and work,” said the retiree. “My brother and brother-in-law spent their whole working life at the refinery and made good money. Everyone benefited from it though. There were men with good paying jobs at ICI and BP and that money went back into the town. It’s really difficult to think of Grangemouth without it.”