A long-running Aberdeenshire family business has signalled its readiness for the upturn by creating a fresh corporate identity and investing heavily in new equipment and machinery.
eGroup, which provides integrated services to the construction and oil and gas industries, has been formed following the amalgamation of four separate companies – eBlast, eClad, eFab (formerly RIM Fabrication) and eTest (formerly CSD Scotland).
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Based at Midmill Industrial Estate, Kintore, eGroup has invested more than £1million in the past six months to make building improvements and expand its suite of new equipment, machinery and other materials which will increase capacity for large volume orders.
This has included delivery of a new drilling and cutting line, consisting of a V630 drill and VB1250 saw, capable of processing universal beam (UB) sections up to 1,016mm by 305mm. Through its CNC control system, the Voortman system accurately drills holes from 5mm to 40mm in diameter and can drill a 22mm diameter hole through 20mm thick steel in around nine seconds.
This latest growth strategy, coupled with process improvements across each division, is expected to create up to 30 jobs within the next three years, including several senior roles in the short-to-medium term as well as growth in regions outwith the company’s traditional north-east of Scotland base.
Neil McDonald, CEO and owner of eGroup, commented: “The past few years have been a challenging period for the whole of the north-east, but we have been fortunate as a business to see the relationships we have built and developed with other companies across the construction and energy sectors continuing to prove fruitful.
“The new identity is something that we’re extremely proud of as a way in which we can bring the four divisions closer together and collaborate more effectively through greater standardisation. This will also bring benefits to our clients in terms of cost savings and project optimisation efficiencies and, in turn, gives me a degree of confidence that we will be on sure footing throughout the upturn.
“We’ve always taken great pride in the history and traditions of each individual business unit but, more importantly, it’s our level of service, reliability and commitment to our clients – traits that are shared by all our team – which have allowed the business to remain successful over the decades.”
eGroup, which currently employs around 190 people, is led by an experienced management team and primarily operates across the north-east of Scotland from its 18-acre facility in Kintore – just 10 minutes away from Aberdeen International Airport.
Following this sizable investment, the business also intends to make significant expenditure in a new group business management system over the next 18 months. In addition, eFab and eClad continue to work with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to achieve Kitemark for Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2 certification – the flagship industry standard for infrastructure projects.
Once completed, the business is expected to become the first sub-contractor in the UK to achieve this level since BIM accreditation moved to align with ISO standards.
Further improvements have also seen the installation of fume extraction solutions that comply with revised enforcement policy from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) centred on how steel weld fume extractions, now classified as carcinogenic, are tackled in fabrication workshops.
