UniGreenScheme, a company that refurbishes surplus laboratory equipment, hopes to create 120 jobs at a former DHL depot in Dumfries, BBC News has reported.
The BBC reports that the company has expanded into a new refurbishment centre on Irongray Road. It is backed by a £420,000 grant from South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), and the company hopes to create the jobs over the next 10 years.
According to the BBC, UniGreenScheme works with more than 90 universities and hundreds of other organisations across the UK. It refurbishes laboratory equipment that might otherwise go to waste. The BBC says a student frustrated at seeing usable equipment thrown away launched the company in Wales in 2015, and that it has grown into one of the largest laboratory equipment reuse organisations in the world. It opened premises at Lochmaben in southern Scotland in 2018.
The BBC reports that the new site gives the business significantly more space to expand and to keep specialist equipment in use for longer. The company said the expansion should also reduce waste and cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 4,400 cars off the road, according to the BBC.
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Michael McLeod, managing director, said the company was “incredibly grateful” for the support from SOSE, as reported by the BBC. He added, as reported by the BBC: “Demand for our resale services is growing fast, and without this investment we simply couldn’t keep up with it.”
The BBC also reports that he said Scotland had been central to the growth of the company’s operations.
