Grantham maltings to shut next month

A Maltings which has operated in Grantham for the past 56 years, is to shut next month.

Bairds’ Grantham Maltings was built in 1964 between Harlaxton Road and Springfield Road.

The closure will cost about $1 million in redundancy payments and $2m to United’s balance sheet through non-cash asset impairments.

Built by Paul & Sandars in 1964, it is the last operating maltings in the town.

Australian-based maltster United Malt Group will close one of its five operations in the UK at Grantham, consolidating production at a second malt house in England at Witham and Arbroath in Scotland.

The Grantham maltings produces around 30,000 tonnes of malt, mostly for traditional UK brewers.

It was the last maltings in a town which once had more than 20, including Lee & Grinlings and Pidcocks.

Managing director Mark Palmquist said: “We do not take the decision to close any facility lightly and we fully appreciate the impact this has on our people at Grantham and the community.”

He said the company, which trades in Britain as Baird’s Malt, had a disciplined approach to investing in key assets and optimising production efficiencies, aligned to market growth and greater asset utilisation.

Consolidating malt production into more efficient sites would cut United’s energy costs, waste and water use across the group.

“We will ensure our people at Grantham are supported through this process and receive their full entitlements,” he said.

The Grantham malthouse, one of the town’s tallest buildings, the last surviving in the former malsting town, has supplied 14,000 tonnes to distilling and brewing markets in the past two and a half years.

Meanwhile, Bairds’ Scottish malting facilities are being upgraded to add 79,000 metric tonnes of capacity across its Arbroath and Inverness sites.

The site has outline planning permission for housing, something taken out in the 1990s and renewed regularly.

When it first opened, in the days of VHF television, viewers in the area received a double-vision on their screens, due to reflextions off the huge building.