By Ian McConnell

Ayrshire entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter has declared the need for scale-up businesses has “never been greater” as the economy emerges from the coronavirus crisis.

Sir Tom hammered home the importance of such enterprises to economic growth as he invited entrepreneurs aiming to scale up their business to apply for an 18-month programme created by The Hunter Foundation, which he founded, and Entrepreneurial Scotland.

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The Scale Up Scotland programme, which is free to successful applicants and has supported 36 businesses already, is recruiting its third cohort, of up to 20 businesses. It supports businesses with “the potential and desire to grow sales beyond £20 million to £30m”.

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In the last year, total revenue for businesses in the second cohort grew more than 100 per cent to £54m and job creation was up 80%, in spite of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme offers a blend of “experiential, business and peer-to-peer learning”, taking entrepreneurs through the “critical components of business scale-up”. Participants will learn from domestic and international business leaders.

Sir Tom said: “Start-ups are great but scale-ups are where the real economic growth will come from for Scotland. It is vital that businesses across Scotland which have ambition to grow are given the opportunity and support to scale. And to scale effectively.”

He added: “Designed to deliver high, dynamic growth, Scale Up Scotland was created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Through sharing experience, access and networks, the programme supports business leaders to build world-class scalable businesses in 18 months. We’ve seen remarkable results from businesses who have gone through the...programme to date.”

The Hunter Foundation and economic development agency Scottish Enterprise fund the programme, with participants meeting their own travel and accommodation costs.

Digitonic chief executive Grant Fraser, who attended the first Scale Up Scotland programme, said: “I knew instantly that this initiative could significantly help accelerate growth within my company by the quality of speakers and training that was planned.

“What impressed me most is the collaboration and bond that Scale Up Scotland helped to facilitate amongst the highly respected business leaders of the great companies that were involved. It was fantastic to be around like-minded people that were going through the same growth pains and to work as a team to come up with solutions based on sharing experiences. The course also significantly improved my business network.“

He noted that, since joining Scale Up Scotland, Digitonic’s revenue has increased by 332%, and net profit had seen double-digit percentage increases, with headcount having more than trebled.