Lab equipment reuse firm hopes to deliver 120 jobs in old DHL depot
UniGreenScheme is expanding into a new refurbishment centre on the Irongray Road in Dumfries.
Lab equipment reuse firm aims to create 120 jobs at former DHL depot
The company says it hopes to generate dozens of new roles at its new Dumfries base
A green technology business that gives unwanted laboratory equipment a second life is aiming to create 120 jobs at a former DHL depot in the south of Scotland.
UniGreenScheme has moved into a new refurbishment centre on Irongray Road in Dumfries.
With support from a £420,000 grant from South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), it expects to create the jobs over the next 10 years.
The firm works with more than 90 universities and hundreds of other organisations across the UK, refurbishing surplus laboratory equipment that might otherwise be discarded.
The factory was once a DHL delivery depot
The company was founded in Wales in 2015 by a student who was frustrated to see usable laboratory equipment being thrown away.
It has since developed into one of the world’s largest laboratory equipment reuse organisations.
UniGreenScheme opened premises in southern Scotland, at Lochmaben, in 2018.
Its new location gives the business much more room to grow operations and keep specialist equipment in use for longer.
Alongside the new jobs, it said the expansion should help cut waste and reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 4,400 cars off the road.
Managing director Michael McLeod said the company was "incredibly grateful" for the support from SOSE.
"Demand for our resale services is growing fast, and without this investment we simply couldn't keep up with it," he said.
He said Scotland had been central to the growth of its operations.
"We now work with every university in Scotland, and the move to Irongray Road gives us the space to take on much more surplus laboratory equipment and give it a second life rather than see it go to waste," he said.
"It means more jobs in Dumfries and more people dedicated to rehoming scientific equipment, while allowing our new site to play a much bigger role in creating a world-leading laboratory equipment reuse and recertification centre here in the south of Scotland."
Jane Morrison-Ross, SOSE's chief executive, said it was exactly the kind of investment they wanted to see - "practical, ambitious and rooted in a global challenge".
The Scottish government's secretary for climate action and rural affairs, Gillian Martin, said the factory showed how "reducing, reusing and recycling materials" had a "huge role to play in Scotland's response to tackling the climate crisis".