GLAXOSMITHKLINE’S huge Fermentation Hall in Ulverston will soon be nothing more than memory and a big empty space.

The demolition crews are well into ridding Ulverston of the plant, which for 50 years was one of the nerve centers of the operation to produce tablet powders for a range of vital antibiotics.

The demolition of the building has finally exposed the giant, 50-year-old fermentation vessels in which important ingredients of the tablets were once grown like yeast in a brewery.

Nowadays in the slimmed down Ulverston operation, those ingredients are bought in from somewhere else instead to save cash. Yet to be decided is how to use the vast space that will be created. For now the plan is just for it to be graveled over and landscaped.

The fermentation complex covered around 4-5 acres.

All the metal from the building is being transported to a recycling company in the UK, says Glaxo. Despite the loss of jobs and the operation at Ulverston, there has been an environmental upside.

The company says volumes of effluent discharged from the site into the Leven Estuary has reduced by approximately 45 per cent as a result of closing the Fermentation Hall.

Plant spokesman Steve Bowe said: “We expect the demolition of the Fermentation to be completed by the end of the year.”

The firm has cut costs to keep its antibiotics in demand and profitable, despite competition from cheaper copycat versions made abroad though the labor force has been cut drastically in recent years it still numbers 570, with anything up to 200 contractors also at the site on a regular basis.

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