Invest in West Lothian Case Studies
Techcomp Europe Group (Edinburgh Instruments and SCION Instruments)
West Lothian Council have been very supportive to our business in a variety of ways."
Two Livingston sister companies, who produce market-leading scientific instruments used worldwide, have been helped to grow by West Lothian Council’s Economic Development team.
Edinburgh Instruments and SCION Instruments have been able to increase their combined local workforce by around 10% within a 3-years’ timeframe, thanks to this support.
Techcomp Europe group, a global organisation that sells laboratory products, acquired both Livingston Village-based firms over 10 years ago and have since experienced rapid growth.
Edinburgh Instruments Ltd was founded in 1971 as a spin out from Heriot-Watt University, and develops and manufactures spectroscopic instruments for the industrial and academic markets. Spectroscopy is used in Forensics, Food Science, Pharmaceuticals, Energy, Microplastics and many more.
SCION Instruments UK Ltd are experts in Chromatography, which is the separation of a mixture into its components, and design, develop, supply and support products lines for the Oil & Gas, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Environmental and Food sectors.
However, the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic affected the group’s cash flow at a time when funding was required to allow the businesses to grow and continue product development.
To overcome this challenge and support the continued growth across the group, the council’s Economic Development team carried out a Growth Assistance Project.
This project provided support with: growing the team and expanding the business facilities; improving consistency across the Project Management team; and developing a sustainable process for one of their product accessories.
Growing the Team
One of the main priorities across the Techcomp Europe Group was to recruit more staff to enable the growth of the business.
As part of the Growth Assistance Project, funding was provided that allowed 18 new high value jobs to be created within West Lothian. This ensured the business had a highly skilled workforce available to support its development and helped SCION Instruments expand its presence in Scotland.
The IT team, in particular, was struggling to keep up to date with the day-to-day support, and maintenance of infrastructure and innovation, as its scope had been expanded from business to group-level support. To help overcome this, funding was provided to hire an IT Graduate. This resulted in improved infrastructure, security, and efficiency across the core IT group.
To accommodate the larger team, funding was granted towards the refurbishment of a new facility, creating a modern open plan facility to allow increased collaboration and facilitate growth opportunities.
Project Management
As a result of the rapid growth experienced by the Techcomp Europe Group as a whole, and the creation of a new Research & Development (R&D) team for SCION Instruments, there was an inconsistent approach and understanding of project management across the group’s R&D teams.
To ensure the R&D teams were working consistently across the group, project management training was provided for both the Edinburgh Instruments and SCION Instruments teams. This created a common approach to project management, which was necessary for group-level reporting.
Refurbishment Process
Finally, there was a requirement to establish a new process for the sustainable refurbishment of one of Edinburgh Instruments key product accessories. As part of the Growth Assistance project, funding was provided to create and implement this. The new service increased customer satisfaction, whilst also minimising environmental impact.
With the combined support of the Growth Assistance project, efficiency and productivity has increased, and the Group has been able to continue on its growth journey.
Ernest Larnach, Finance Director of Edinburgh Instruments, said, “West Lothian Council have been very supportive to our business in a variety of ways. The funding that they have provided has allowed to both progress critical projects and solve several business issues. Approximately 19 local jobs have been created as a result.”
Click below to learn more about our Growth Assistance Project and our Workforce Development support, or to contact us to discuss the support available:
