Grangemouth firm to create 120 jobs after securing funding from UKSE
A GRANGEMOUTH-based engineering business that provides manufacturing and maintenance services to the utilities sector is to create 120 full-time jobs in the Central Belt after securing funding from Tata Steel subsidiary UK Steel Enterprise (UKSE).
ID Systems sought the funding, which is understood to be in the region of £375,000, after winning a number of long-term contracts, including one contract for the off-site manufacture of wastewater pumping stations for Scottish Water.
ID Systems managing director Iain Doherty said that the wins had enabled the company to press ahead with expansion plans that will see the firm increase its headcount at existing sites in Grangemouth and Glasgow.
It will in addition be opening a new base in Lanarkshire next year.
The company is looking to move into existing premises rather than building a new site in Lanarkshire.
“Over the last year we have been very successful in a number of frameworks that last anywhere from four to 12 years,” he said.
“That’s allowing us to plan for strategic growth, mainly for manufacturing.”
The jobs created will be for workshop staff as well as electrical and mechanical engineers, with the company aiming to boost its current headcount of 80 to 200 within the next six months to two years.
Scott Webb, regional executive for UKSE, said that having the capacity to manufacture items such as pumping stations in an off-site facility would bring greater efficiencies – not just for ID Systems but for communities across Scotland too.
“At the moment if a pumping station is put in in the wilds it is taken to the site and assembled there – it’s a major task,” he said.
“This funding will create the facilities to let [ID offsite Systems] build these units here in the Central Belt so they can then be taken and almost just plugged in.”
UKSE, which provides business loans of up to £750,000 to help regenerate communities hit by the decline in the steel industry, was introduced to ID Systems by Glasgow accountancy firm French Duncan.
While part of its funding to the business is in the form of a five-year term loan, UKSE has also taken a shareholding in ID Systems with the potential to provide further funding in due course.
Together with a new seven-person senior management team, UKSE owns a share of 25 per cent of ID Systems.
Mr Doherty, who founded the Grangemouth-based company in 2002, retains the other 75 per cent.
The management team, which includes roles such as finance director, operations director and delivery manager, has been assembled from existing staff members, each of whom have contributed a small amount of equity to the business.
Mr Doherty said: “We now have a board of directors and a team of managers who also put some money into the business.
“They’ve all been with the company for a long time and I felt it was right to give them that opportunity.”
In addition to the funding from UKSE and the management team, ID Systems has also secured an HSBC loan.