Glass bottle manufacturer disadvantaged by GB cost-cutting scheme

A major manufacturing employer in Fermanagh has been placed at an unintended competitive disadvantage by a scheme to cut electricity costs for businesses in GB, a senior civil servant has warned MLAs.

Encirc employs hundreds of people at its glass bottle manufacturing facility at Derrylin in County Fermanagh.

It has a sister plant at Elton in the north west of the England.

The Elton plant is benefitting from a UK government subsidy scheme to cut costs for the most intensive business energy users in GB.

But Northern Ireland is part of an all-Ireland, rather than UK, electricity market so the subsidy scheme is not available to the Derrylin factory.

Richard Rodgers, the official in charge of energy policy, told the economy committee the Fermanagh operation was now less competitive as a result.

He explained that the GB scheme was being funded by adding charges to household bills, making it difficult to replicate in Northern Ireland.

"It is not clear to me how we would provide a subsidy in line with what's happening across the water with affecting the level of fuel poverty here.

"That's the balance we are trying to find."

He warned that from April next year the GB scheme was being extended to a wider range of companies which would put more Northern Ireland manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage.

Rodgers said the Economy Minister Caomihe Archibald met large energy users last week for "an open and honest discussion" about possible solutions and had also raised the issue with her UK counterpart.

"We need to collaborate, we need to work to protect our industry because we know from the example of other industry that has left that when it goes it doesn't come back," he added.

Encirc is part of the Spanish manufacturer conglomerate, the Vidrala Group.

Last month it announced profits of €220m (£191m) on sales of just under €1.5bn (£1.3bn).

Sean Murphy, who runs the Encirc operation, said at that time that 2025 had been "a year of real challenge, with market pressures and changes in government policy creating difficult trading conditions across the UK".

"We acted quickly and decisively, taking tough decisions to protect our competitiveness and ensure we remain positioned for future success."