THE prospective new owners of Northwich Victoria's home patch have released the following statement today, Thursday:

FOLLOWING the announcement from Deloitte detailing that the Victoria Stadium has been sold to an unnamed buyer, we wish to advise that the buyer is Thor Specialities (UK) Limited.

Thor is a privately-owned British speciality chemical business which operates from the site that is immediately next door to the Victoria Stadium.

It was our intention to confirm this purchase publicly at the end of this month, or early next month, upon completion of the contract but following the speculation and uncertainty that has arisen we deemed it appropriate to confirm the situation.

Thor has been in Wincham since 2002 and, despite the global economic climate, has continued to invest in its business and infrastructure.

As a result, it has gone through a considerable expansion programme which in turn has meant the need for further capacity and distribution facilities.

The purchase of the adjoining site means that we will be able to continue to invest in these areas, resulting in both long-term security of employment for our current workforce but also the creation of new employment opportunities within the area.

As it has been already stated by Deloitte, the football club has been given numerous opportunities over the past two and a half years to purchase the stadium, but for reasons unknown to Thor this has never materialised.

It was only when we became aware that Northwich Victoria had made an agreement to ground share for the current season with their neighbours Witton Albion that we approached the receivers with respect to the future plans for the site.

In July 2011 we reached a verbal understanding with them but, before this could lead to any firm agreement, we were advised by the that negotiations had once again been initiated by the football club.

The receiver stated that they would prefer a sale to the football club and that they wished to pursue a final round of negotiations with them before making any decision on further talks with Thor.

These talks again failed to materialise with the purchase of the stadium and as a result the receivers then elected to re-commence negotiations with Thor.

We are extremely sympathetic to the plight of the football club and do recognise its contribution to the local community as one of the oldest football clubs in England.

While we will not be in a position to allow the club to continue to operate from the stadium, we are willing to sit down and discuss ways in which we could provide some assistance to the club going forward.

We would like to assure the club that once we can establish what format and structure they will have going forward then we will be more than happy to sit down and meet with the appropriate people.