Assisting The Development Of Highland Enterprise (06/03/07)

Directors of Highland Opportunity Limited, The Highland Council’s Enterprise Trust for the Highlands, recently held their Board meeting in Caithness and visited four successful local businesses which had all received financial assistance through their investment fund.

Highland Opportunity Limited provides discretionary financial assistance, professional business support, youth enterprise services and European consultancy to small and medium sized enterprises, with a particular interest in new and developing businesses.  The company has been providing financial assistance to Highland businesses since 1986.

Councillor Sandy Park, Chairman of HOL, said: “The Board was very impressed with each and every one of the businesses we visited. They are exactly the kind of business that Caithness needs to sustain its economy in the wake of the Dounreay run down.”

The Board, consisting of eight Councillors from across the Highlands, visited the following Caithness businesses:

• Caithness Creels Ltd, Wick Industrial Estate
  
  This successful creel manufacturing business was established in 1986 by John Sinclair.  Steadily expanding over the years, and now employing 27 workers, the company exports its high quality creels worldwide, as well as supplying a wide range of products such as rope, net buoys etc to the fishing industry.  In 2000, Caithness Creels relocated to new purpose-built premises at Wick Industrial Estate and with funding through Highland Opportunity towards the installation of state-of-the art equipment, creel production has dramatically increased in over the last two years.
  
• Hunter’s Promotions Ltd, Wick Industrial Estate
  
  John and Christine Hunter established Hunter’s Promotions Limited in May 2006, with financial assistance through Highland Opportunity Limited.  The only golf course product manufacturer in Scotland, the Hunters design and make high quality golf course products at their premises at Wick Industrial Estate.  The business is now going from strength to strength and their innovative products, which range from portable golf practice mats to hinged litter bins, are selling well to some of the most famous golf courses in the UK.
  
• Speedy Skip Hire, Thurso
  
  This highly successful Thurso-based business owned by George Sutherland has been in operation since 1977, recycling glass, cardboard and scrap metal recovered from skips hired out throughout Caithness.  In recent years, a major expansion of the business was undertaken.  With financial assistance through Highland Opportunity, the business premises were extended and a mobile car and scrap metal baling machine was purchased.  The company now provides a valuable and essential service in the Far North with the disposal of redundant farm machinery and hundreds of old and abandoned vehicles.
  
• E & M Engineering Services
  
  Established in 1976 by William Reid, E & M Engineering Services is a successful Thurso-based business, providing a valuable 24-hour marine maintenance and engineering service in the north.   The business which employs 10 workers, will shortly relocate from Thurso to Scrabster Harbour, into new premises built with funding through Highland Opportunity Limited.  The new building includes a fully equipped engineering workshop, offices and spare parts retail department.  The relocation to the rapidly developing port of Scrabster willl allow the company to take on more lucrative oil and marine contracts and the spacious workshop will enable it to operate more efficiently.