A consortium of Scottish businessmen is seeking to raise £1bn to develop an integrated forest industry project at Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth.
The ambitious plan, led by Ed Gillespie, was spurred by the huge quantities of Sitka spruce due to mature in Scotland, and the company Forscot was born.
Mr Gillespie and three of his colleagues have extensive experience in the pulp and paper industry while the fifth person comes from a forestry background.
Mr Gillespie said: “Scotland’s remarkable Sitka spruce is coming to maturity but the Scottish market is very depressed. We could see that this excellent raw material would make first class pulp, but if there is going to be sustainability we need a sawmill, a kraft pulp mill, a paper mill and a renewable energy generation plant.”
Forscot is in discussion with Alcan, which owns the Cromarty Firth Business Park, about land for the project. Part of the site is already home to 11 businesses employing around 200 people which would stay.
Funding for the first stage of the project has been secured, including a grant of £200,000 from Ross and Cromarty Enterprise.
Mr Gillespie said: “We are at a very early stage and there are two reasons for going public now. First, we want to make sure we do it properly, in consultation with all the people involved, and secondly we have got to raise a considerable amount of finance which you cannot do in the dark.”
Forscot hopes to begin construction of the sawmill and power station in 2006, followed by the remaining elements of the the scheme.
