Exodus spreads at Britishvolt owner Scale Facilitation
A senior executive at the new owner of troubled battery-making start-up Britishvolt has quit amid signs of a growing exodus from its parent company.
Peter Rolton, effectively the number two, with the title “chief scale officer”, has left with immediate effect having been brought in to work for Recharge Industries this year.
Rolton was chairman of Britishvolt from 2022 until it collapsed into administration at the start of this year.
Britishvolt was seen as a great hope for the car industry with plans to build a £3 billion “gigafactory” at Blyth in Northumberland, but it folded after running out of money. Its assets were bought by Australian start-up Recharge in February.
Rolton was brought back by Recharge’s owner, David Collard, to take advantage of his local knowledge. But the company has yet to buy the land for the site amid concerns it too has cashflow issues. It emerged last month there was a two-week delay in Recharge paying its staff in Australia.
The offices of its parent company Scale Facilitation were raided by Australian Federal Police last month as part of an investigation into an alleged taxation fraud. Scale Facilitation has denied any wrongdoing.
At least two members of Scale’s advisory board put in their notices in recent weeks. Australian neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld and medical adviser Joseph Mathew both stepped down but declined to say why. Retired brigadier Edward Dawes, the only Briton on the advisory board, said he continued to back the company. Scale’s advisory board and the biographies of key personnel have been removed from its website.
Other departures include Scale Facilitation’s general counsel in the US, Lucas Kenny, and managing director in Australia, Joey Ballantyne, who left last month.
Scale did not respond to a request for comment. Rolton declined to comment.
