£22M ALDI CHILL PLANT WILL CREATE 200 JOBS
,19(67 ,1 62/$5 39 72'$<
)GPGTCVG (4'' 'NGEVTKEKV[ )GV 2CKF VQ )GPGTCVG 'NGEVTKEKV[ 4GFWEG [QWT 'NGEVTKEKV[ $KNNU +VŏU 0GXGT $GGP %JGCRGT CUT-PRICE supermarket firm Aldi yesterday said they are taking on up to 200 workers at their West Lothian base.
The new positions will be created at the German firm’s regional HQ in Bathgate, where £22million will be spent on a 183,000 sq ft chill and freezer facility.
Giles Hurley, boss of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Over the coming years, as we increase our range of Scottish products, we expect to grow our market share considerably and attract even more shoppers into stores.”
Cathy Muldoon, executive councillor for development and transport at West Lothian Council, said: “We welcome Aldi’s decision to expand their regional headquarters in Bathgate.
“It’s a huge vote of confidence in their West Lothian workforce.” FOR THREE years, James Logan was living with a potential death sentence after a brush with an insect-borne disease in Africa.
The Scots doctor and star of shows like Embarrassing Bodies was on a research trip to Burkina Faso when he feared he had contracted the deadly disease trypanosomiasis, also known as African sleeping sickness.
The illness is transmitted by a bite from the tsetse fly but symptoms develop slowly and ultimately prove fatal.
He said: “I had the all early signs and I tested positive for it. So it was hanging over me. It was a difficult time.”
James, 37, is a bug expert on Channel 4 series Embarrassing Bodies and has been seen on The One Show and Bang Goes the Theory on BBC1.
James, from North Berwick, East Lothian, has been fascinated by bugs since he was a child and in the course of his work as the scientist he has been bitten by mosquitos but the tsetse fly is one of the deadliest in the world.
His nightmare began when he was in Burkina Faso in west Africa with a team of scientists for a study of the tsetse flies that transmit sleeping sickness.
He said: “We were staying in mud huts in the middle of nowhere in a little camp and we got bitten a lot by these flies and when they bite, it really hurts.
“Tsetse flies are highly aggressive and attracted to movement, colours and, if you run, they will chase after you. They will even chase after your car. They can inject the trypanosoma parasite.”
When James came home, he started to feel unwell. He said: “I had really odd symptoms that are hard to explain. I’d feel really tired. I already had a yeast intolerance but my stomach problems became really bad.
“I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to sleep and feel very nauseous. Sometimes I’d actually be sick. It would knock me out for three or four days at a time. I felt weak at times and had joint pain.”
James, who is a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical