UK STEEL Enterprise (UKSE) has invested £500,000 in the management buyout of Ayrshire-based Scotia Double Glazing, one of its biggest-ever deals in Scotland.
UKSE is the Tata Steel subsidiary established to support companies operating in former steel-producing areas, and it made the investment as part of a £2.15 million package to buy the firm via a management buyout.
Leading the buyout was Robert McKnight, finance and operations director at Scotia, which was founded in Kilmarnock in 1983 with 10 staff and now has more than 155.
Mr McKnight said the funding from UKSE will help the company realise its ambitions, and he predicted that it will experience continuous growth, with turnover of about £12m a year in the next four years.
Looking at the impact of the recession, he said it "hit the house-building industry hard in 2008, affecting everyone in the supply chain, including ourselves".
He added: "However, we worked our way through that and the industry is now back to pre-recession levels."
The firm started out selling to domestic customers, but more than 15 years ago decided to start also working directly with major house-builders, supplying uPVC double-glazed window and door frames for new-builds, and this sector now comprises the biggest part of its revenues.
Its clients include Wimpey Homes, Stewart Milne Group, Bett Homes, Miller Homes, and Barratt Homes, and it plans to increase production from about 1,000 windows a week to 1,250 in the next two years, creating up to 22 new jobs.
Mr McKnight said: "We're working across four different factories at the moment and would ideally like to have a facility under one roof here in Ayrshire at some point in the future, and we can work towards this ambition now we have the right people on our senior management team."
He also said: "While the investment has been very welcome and helped us complete the financial package for the management buy-out, it has been a tremendous benefit having the expertise of UKSE on board to offer guidance and support."
Scott Webb, UKSE's regional executive for Scotland, praised Scotia for having been a "strong performer" for several years. "We believe this is a tremendous opportunity to invest in a long-established, profitable business, which has a loyal customer base, solid order book and a real potential to create jobs," he went on to say.
UKSE was founded in 1975 and its financial support to-date totals more than £85m.
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