Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Out-of-town companies looking to fill McGill gap
THE collapse of Dundee building firm McGill may lead to a rise in out-of-town firms coming into the city to pick up their abandoned contracts.
Firms who attended yesterday’s Pace redundancy support event at the Apex Hotel said they were aiming to take over the jobs McGill had left unfinished.
Neil Davidson, director at contractors McKenna Group, said: “At the moment the opportunities we have are quite limited, but there may be potential in the future with the contracts McGill had.
“We may be asked to look at these or tender for these – future opportunities would depend on the awards of these contracts.”
Eddie Ferguson, business support manager at Emtec Building Services, said previous plans to open a Dundee office – put on ice because of McGill’s local dominance – could be revisited.
He added: “We’re hoping we can pick up a pipeline of work and give opportunities to the guys from McGill. It all depends on what becomes available.”
Workers have criticised McGill’s secrecy about its cash woes ahead of last week’s collapse.
Rumours of the firm’s imminent failure had circulated for several weeks beforehand, but directors failed to keep workers informed.
Ex-employee Gary Trainer, 53, from Lochee, said: “We were up doing a job at Angus Council on Friday when we got an email telling us to come down.
“We didn’t know a thing until we got told. Suppliers had put us on hold for things like wood and other materials, but other than that we didn’t know a thing.”
The Scottish Government’s business quango Scottish Enterprise has continued to attract criticism for its handling of the crisis.
The body declined to provide McGill with a £2 million loan that might have saved the firm, citing a failure by company directors to provide paperwork on time.
Scottish Conservative MSP Bill Bowman said “something didn’t add up” about Scottish Enterprise’s handling of the situation.
He added: “A small loan to shore it up might have stopped a potential j obs shockwave i n Dundee.”
Dundee City East SNP MSP Shona Robison branded the decision as “disappointing” and has requested a briefing for all local MSPs so they can be “clear on the facts”.
Labour MSP Jenny Marra has also criticised the organisation’s “recklessness”.
Scottish Enterprise confirmed a briefing was being arranged on its behalf by the government.