HELLO and welcome to the AM Business Briefing, as Glasgow-based Akela Ground Engineering has secured a contract at Aldi supermarket at Redbrae Road in Falkirk.
The project valued at £27,000 is the second project that Akela GE, part of the Akela Group, has won with the retail giant in quick succession, and follows the successful completion of a large-scale refurbishment and extension of Aldi supermarket at Craig O’Loch Road in Forfar, worth £70,000.
The project will incorporate a number of sustainability features including using displacement piling which eliminates the need to dispose of soil offsite.
Work is scheduled to begin on-site this month and will be complete by March.
Mark Markey, Akela Group managing director, said: “This contract win closely follows our successful delivery of Aldi’ refurbishment in Forfar and is a shining example of the innovative solutions that we are using to deliver high quality and sustainable projects for our clients.
“We are pleased to be working with Aldi again as we continue to grow our ground engineering and construction portfolio in the retail sector across Scotland.”
The firm is also to deliver piling solutions at a new electric vehicle charging hub at Palace Grounds Retail Park in Hamilton, which follows the work that Akela recently completed at the UK's most powerful EV charging hub in Oxford.
It comes as Aldi, the German-owned grocery retailer, has said it plans to continue expanding beyond its current 100 stores in Scotland.
Covid loan defaults could eclipse fraud write-offs
The value of Covid loan defaults could more than double the estimated £4.3 billion that may have to be written off by the goverrnment due to fraud, a restructuring expert has warned, with Scotland likely to see more than £1bn of defaulted business loans.
Azets has estimated that as much as £10bn of the £73.8bn provided under the UK's Bounce Back Loan (BBL) and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) schemes during the early part of the pandemic will go into default as firms struggle to make repayments amid rising costs and the end of local authority grants.
Murray family rings changes at top of venerable Scottish wine merchant
The Murray family has reshuffled the senior leadership team at their venerable Scottish wine business.
Wine Importers, which supplies top-end restaurants and hotels, has appointed Neil Renton as managing director.
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