A Kvaerner spokesperson said: “We have issued a writ and it is to resolve the final account with the client. I doubt it will go any further than that.”
The spokesperson added: “Some other complex issues outside the contract are under discussion.”
A spokesperson for Egger UK, the UK branch of the Austrian firm, said that it would contest the claim.
Kvaerner built the factory on a 20 ha former colliery site at Barony, near Auchinleck in south west Scotland between July 1997 and February 1998. East Ayrshire Council granted planning permission for the factory in March 1997, but the project was delayed until May 1997 to allow the site to be cleared.
About £15m of the money claimed by Kvaerner is for environmental features, such as emission filtering, covered storage areas for chipboard and reed beds for draining rainwater from roofs. The factory is Egger’s second UK manufacturing base after Hexham in Northumberland.
