Another step forward

In October 2013 I blipped a picture taken at the Wind Towers Factory at Machrihanish in Kintyre.  Wind Towers had been through a few incarnations by that time over almost two decades  and the 100 plus jobs had been at risk on a few occasions but the purchase of the company by SSE in 2011 was seen as a guarantor of stability.

That has turned out to be the case but SSE also said at the time that once they felt it was safe to do so they would like to find  a purchaser in the renewables industry to take the company forward to the next stage.   

That process came to fruition today with the handover of the factory to CS Wind UK, a new offshoot of one of the largest players in the field.  They have manufacturing plants in China, Vietnam, Canada and in their home country of South Korea and the addition of Machrihanish gives them the opportunity to become a very significant player in the European market and to expand in a significant way into construction of the towers for offshore wind farms.

I was invited to be present at the event today and after the unveiling of the plaque the Korean Chairman announced a "signing on" bonus for all the staff which was greeted even more warmly.

Many people and organisations - HIE, Scottish Development International, the Scottish Government and a host of others  - have worked to achieve this further step forward.  It was good to see it happen at first hand on what was a wet and very windy day in Kintyre.   The wind was, however, probably a good omen for this type of enterprise !