Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Reputation is being damaged by yobs
Businessman hits out after fire at his Airdrie yard
A director of a multi-million pound Airdrie business whose premises were recently set on fire has hit out at firebugs who “drag down the good reputation of the town”.
Ken Hornspy, founder of Miers Construction Parts on Watt Street, feared his company was about to go up in smoke last Wednesday, when louts started the blaze at around 11pm.
The frustrated entrepreneur now faces losing around £75,000 of business over the next month due to not having the necessary stock available for distribution.
But depite the problems arising from the arson attack, Ken says his real concerns lie with the rapidly extinguishing reputation of Airdrie as a “perfect location” for businesses like his which require excellent transport links.
He told the Advertiser: “This is yet another dent in the town and its reputation.
“News like this travels fast and is happening too often in the area.
“This will be at the forefront of business owners’ minds when they’re looking to relocate.
“Businesses like ours look for places with low-cost operations within a good striking distance of your customer base – Airdrie is perfect.
“But it’s just getting dragged down by louts and people are being put off bringing their business here.
“And quite rightly, why should they have to put their livelihood at risk?”
He continued: “Our customers are understanding but do they care? Not really.
“They’ve got a sympathetic outlook to us but they’ve got their own businesses to run.
“I’m losing business now and that will continue until all of this gets sorted, so I’m very frustrated.
“This could have been disastrous, though I’m thankful it’s only some money I’m losing out on and the place hasn’t been burned to the ground.
“Construction has to go on and it won’t wait for us.”
Miers have been supplying construction products since 2011 with nine of their 10 employees at the Airdrie depot hailing from Monklands.
Their rapid and successful growth has seen them included in The Times’ top 100 fastest-growing UK businesses list for two years running.
Although they’ve experienced success so far, Ken reveals this incident wasn’t the first time it was nearly snatched away from them by mindless yobs.
He said: “I’ve seen kids on the CCTV come into the yard at night to build dens before and that’s not on either, but I never thought they’d torch the place.
“This is the first time serious damage has been done and I just want parents to keep an eye on their kids because businesses won’t accept this going forward.
“If these kids come back again I’ll make sure I turn this place into Fort Knox.
“We started this business from diddly- squat and are a widely respected competitor in the industry.
“But incidents like this harm not only us but the whole town.”