Vasile Damian, new Sawmill Manager at GMG Energy.
A rapidly-expanding Highland timber products specialist has made a keystone appointment to its management team which will enable it to enhance its contribution to the sustainable trading environment of the sparsely-populated region.
Biomass supplier GMG Energy, which contributes significantly to the circular economy in the Highlands and the Northern Isles, has secured the services of a new Sawmill Manager at its eco-friendly plant in the Strath of Halladale in Sutherland.
Vasile Damian, 30, a joiner to trade and originally from Romania who has lived in Thurso for the last 17 years, will oversee the six full-time employees and production of more than 2,000 tonnes of timber a year in the £2 million turnover company, reporting to owner Malcolm Morrison.
He will also be responsible for the successful operation of a massive solar array on the roof of its production facility which recently was installed at a cost of £100,000 to reduce GMG’s dependence on expensive and polluting diesel generators for its energy-intensive activities.
The former foreman at Caithness- and Inverness-based windows, doors and kit homes specialist Norscot, said: “I am pleased to be joining GMG at a time when Malcolm is looking to upgrade and extend our product range.
“With our solar panels in place, our sawmill moving to optimum capacity, such that we will shortly see sawdust being used for brickettes, and our bio mass machine becoming fully functional, we will soon see the business becoming as self-sufficient as possible. That is the ultimate goal.
“We have invested recently also in new machinery to make more upmarket consumer-friendly wood products such as garden offices, cabins, pods and staircases which will use pine wood. Currently, we are only able to use spruce for outside products like fencing, posts and pallets.
“No one else in our locality is doing what we are doing so there is a lot of opportunity for the business. Our goal is to make the Caithness region aware of us and to opt for our locally manufactured, rather than shipped-in, products. We have just launched our online shop too, so it’s certainly an exciting time to be working at GMG Energy.”
Malcolm Morrison, Director of GMG Energy, said: “Everyone in the team is delighted that we have been able to attract a manager of such proven calibre. Vasile is very knowledgeable; he is attuned to the peculiarities of the area and he is very intuitive.
“At a time when we have been investing so substantially, he is taking on a great responsibility and we are sure he will rise to the challenge of making the company even greener and more environmentally sensitive than it already is.
“Vasile will be instrumental in driving towards our stated aim of ending fossil fuel consumption and becoming reliant on solar for 100% of our energy needs.”
As well as the solar array, GMG has invested £150,000 in state-of-the-art sawmill equipment which takes its larger timber and processes it into posts, rail, cladding and purlins, or structural roof members.
It has also recently spent in the region of £100,000 on timber treatment equipment which will open up new markets among construction companies and farm businesses which require treated and stress-tested products.
The resource-rich company last year completed strategic purchase of a substantial swathe of forest in the far north-east to protect future supply and increase its resilience to market shocks. The forest contains 21,000 tonnes of productive timber, very roughly equivalent to 90,000 tree-sized logs.
As a major plank of its business model, the company is committed to replacing every log of timber that it uses, and plants 10,000 new trees a year, which grow to maturity in 35 years. It far exceeded this target in 2021, planting in the region of 20,000 trees.
The Supplier Development Programme (SDP) will hold the sixth annual Meet the Buyer North event on Tuesday, 12 September as an in-person event at the Music Halls in Aberdeen.
Partnered by the Scottish Government and the Commercial and Procurement Shared Services, this free event will allow local businesses based in Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Highland, Orkney Islands, Western Isles, and Shetland Islands Councils to connect directly with the public sector to learn about upcoming contracts and opportunities worth £14.5bn in Scotland.
Gillian Cameron, Programme Manager, Supplier Development Programme, said:
“Now in its 6th Year, Meet the Buyer North is an unmissable opportunity for businesses of all sizes to meet buyers and decision makers from across the public and private sectors.
“This is the first time we have held the event in Aberdeen, and the Supplier Development Programme is delighted to be partnering with the Commercial & Procurement Shared Services (CPSS) representing Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Highland Councils, Scottish Government, and our local authority partners to support more local businesses to find, win and keep public sector contracts at Meet the Buyer North.
Fiona Conti, Chair of the Supplier Development Programme and Strategic Procurement Manager at Commercial & Procurement Shared Services (CPSS), said:
“We are delighted to be hosting this year’s Meet the Buyer North event and this is your opportunity as a local/ regional business or social enterprise to meet with us, so that when we are looking for goods, services, or works we have a better understanding of who is out there”.
“There are fantastic benefits to having a public sector buyer as a customer for small businesses, including getting paid within 30 days as a legal maximum, which offers cashflow they can count on.”
On the day, suppliers will have the opportunity to listen to presentations on a wide range of topics that offer opportunities to grow and support their business or social enterprise.
This action-packed agenda will include Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade, delivering the Ministerial Address, and joining an open panel Question and Answer session, which will include representation from Scottish Government, the Commercial & Procurement Shared Services and SDP offering SMEs, Social Enterprises and Third Sector Organisations a forum to talk all things procurement, so get your questions ready for this interactive session.
In addition to exhibitors from the Scottish Government, Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Highland Council, other confirmed public sector exhibitors include buyers from Moray Council, Historic Environment Scotland, and Scottish Procurement Alliance.
Corporate members, Balfour Beatty Construction and Robertson Facilities Management will also be exhibiting on the day to engage suppliers in the North of Scotland and discuss the range of projects they have in their pipeline and upcoming supply chain opportunities.
More than 550 people have already registered to attend Meet the Buyer North 2023 on 12 September. Have you? It is a must-attend event for businesses of all sizes based in the North of Scotland.
Businesses must register for free tickets in advance via www.sdpscotland.co.uk.
Eastern Airways announce two fantastic offers on the Wick/John O’Groats-Aberdeen air service.
Moving away for studies can be a stressful time for all, especially with all of that luggage!
Eastern Airways are helping all students this September using our Wick – Aberdeen and Newquay – London Gatwick routes by offering a FREE upgrade on baggage allowances.
Kids fly free this October between Wick and Aberdeen!
Make memories this half term and let Eastern Airways take the whole family away for less. Receive one free child ticket with each adult booking between Wick and Aberdeen.
Take in the city delights as a family, or make the most of a rural getaway.
Booking should be made with Easter Airways directly by calling: 01652 680600
Wick Harbour Authority – Appointment of Board Members 2023
Closing Date for applications – Friday 8th September 2023 Close of Business Day
Due to completion of the term of two existing Board Members, Wick Harbour Authority is seeking applications from high quality individuals interested in being considered for Board membership. Each term of office will run from 1 November 2023 for three years.
The Board, as a whole, requires to have special knowledge, experience and ability in a broad and complementary range of matters as specified in the Wick Harbour 2005 Revision Orders which are relevant to the efficient and economic discharge of the Board of their functions.
The ability to work well within a committee, to grasp and deal with complex issues and to express your own views clearly will also be required. Residence within a reasonable distance (e.g. 50 miles) of the harbour and familiarity with local issues will also be desirable.
The appointments will be made on the basis of merit and aptitude in accordance with the Modern Trusts Ports for Scotland – Guidance for good governance. Board Members will be expected to attend meetings and otherwise devote one to two days per month to the work of the Board. Duties are similar to those of a company director and will include responsibility for the proper exercise of the statutory functions of the Board. No remuneration beyond necessary expenses will be provided.
Applicants will also be required to demonstrate ability and a proven track record in their chosen profession or other activities and, to complement the existing range of expertise on the Board should ideally have professional or personal experience in one or more of the following areas:
• the trade and industry of the North-east of Scotland, preferably with knowledge of the freight or maritime transport sector; and/or
• knowledge and interest in the local and wider community and the economic and social context within which the Port operates
Wick Harbour Board is committed to equality of opportunity, encouraging a diverse range of application, and to the principle of appointments on the basis of with openness and transparency of process in accordance with the Guide to Good Governance for Trust Ports.
Go to www.wickharbour.co.uk/news-events for an application pack.
Alternatively, application packs can be collected from Wick Harbour Authority at its office located at Harbour Office, Wick, KW1 5HA or requested via email office@wickharbour.co.uk
Completed applications should be sent to : office@wickharbour.co.uk or to our postal address below:
FAO Board Secretary
Wick Harbour Authority Board
Wick Harbour Authority
Harbour Office
Wick KW1 5HA
Get to know Reid’s of Caithness – The baking family bringing a taste of Caithness to an international market!
From delicious all-butter shortbread boarding first-class rail services and jetting off on Atlantic flights, to rainbow rows of their signature tartan tins displayed inside premium malls and delicatessens from Asia and to Australia; Reid’s of Caithness is delivering a taste of Caithness to a truly international market.
The family-run business was established by Donald and Joyce Reid in 1966, using recipes passed down through the generations. 57 years later, the business has grown in scale to employ over 50 people and produces hundreds of thousands of biscuits, cakes and oatcakes every year from their 20,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art bakery, office and warehouse facility in Thurso.
Today, the bakery is managed by the second generation of the family, with Gary and his wife Tracy leading the way for this award-winning business, most recently recognised Scottish Wholesale Baker of the Year 2023. An accolade which demonstrates not only an exemplary product, but also praise for their business operation, level of customer service, ambition, and professionalism.
Reid’s are passionate about innovation, and although the bakery has significantly developed its production capacity and product line since its founding days, the focus on high-quality ingredients and producing well-made product remains at the heart of the business.
The business also remains committed to its investment in its people. In the last 10 years, Reid’s have put over 35 team members through apprenticeships in production & processing, bakery skills, food & drink operations, distribution, and food manufacturing excellence and take an active role in developing their skills, an attribute reflected in every aspect of their business.
Tracy and Gary Reid, outside the family owned bakery in Thurso.
What opportunities are ahead?
“We’re continuing to invest in the business, our ambition is for larger oven capacity and faster wrapping stations and we’re looking at automating our biscuit-forming line.
“But it’s not about replacing people with machines, we’ll always need skilled staff, and eventually some of them may be engineers to work alongside robots, or ‘co-bots’ as they’re sometimes called.”
What are the biggest challenges facing your business?
“We use quality local ingredients and employ around 50 people locally. We are committed to their personal training and development and believe that we have a responsibility to make sure our team is well skilled.
However, because we can’t compare with the wages offered here by the nuclear industry or the distillers, we often struggle to attract people and hang onto our workforce. As a bakery, our people are crucial to our operations.
Current consumer behavior and attitudes are also making it increasingly hard to sustain a profit from our type of food production, and like all in the food manufacturing sector, inflation, volatile ingredients pricing and cost-of-living crisis are also having a huge impact on our business – but we believe the quality of our award-winning products shine through.”
What are your proudest moments?
“Winning Wholesale Baker of the Year for the third year was fantastic, and a great boost and credit to our whole team.
Of course, we are proud of all of our awards and achievements, but our ability to react during Covid and support the supply chain with our breads both locally and nationally, into major supermarkets is something we are especially proud of.
Our business is SALSA accredited, meaning we could be audited at any point. It’s extremely important to our business and means our customers and retailers know our products adhere to the strictest health and safety food regulations. If you are a consumer and see a Reid’s product on the shelves, you know it has that guarantee.”
Where is the furthest place away from Thurso that you can buy a Reid’s Biscuit?
“We are exporting our award-winning shortbread and biscuits to over 30 countries, including Costa Rica, South Africa, Iceland, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
We love hearing from our customers and have a huge amount of support from our locals here in Caithness. We often get people sending us pictures of our products when they are travelling – we’ve even had images from as far away as New Zealand”
The West of Orkney Windfarm will be hosting a supply chain event in Thurso on September 14 where local businesses can meet members of the project team and learn more about how to bid successfully for future work packages.
The event, which has been organised in partnership with the Caithness Chamber of Commerce, will be hosted in the Pentland Hotel.
“We would like to encourage companies from across the north of Scotland to come along to this event and engage with the West of Orkney team,” says Rob Heaton, Supply Chain and Local Content Lead.
“Although construction of the wind farm will not ramp up fully for a number of years, we believe early engagement is critical in helping local firms understand how work will be advertised and procured, and in enabling them to bid successfully for future contracts,” Rob says.
In addition to the Caithness event, the West of Orkney Windfarm will also be participating in a number of other supply chain events in Aberdeen, Inverness and Orkney this Autumn.
The West of Orkney Windfarm has already committed to a £105 million investment initiative during this initial phase of the project to develop the supply chain that will be enhanced to at least £140 million by match funding from third parties.
“We will be making announcements in the coming weeks on specific initiatives which will create opportunities for the supply chain in Scotland, and I would encourage companies to come along to one of the supply chain events to meet the team and understand more about our project,” Rob concludes.
Event bookings will be live mid August, for further information contact Fiona@caithnesschamber.com
Further details on supply chain events can be found here: www.westoforkney.com/supply-chain
Scrabster Harbour Trust is managed by a Board consisting of six non-executive and one executive member. Two non-executive vacancies are to arise at this year’s AGM and applications are invited to fill these vacancies. Appointments will be for a term of three years.
The full Board requires to have wide and relevant experience, and candidates will therefore be expected to have skills and experience in business or industrial management, harbour operations, or administration and local community interests. The ability to work well within a committee, to grasp and deal with complex issues and to express your own views clearly will be necessary. Residence within a reasonable distance of the harbour and familiarity with local issues will be desirable.
Board Members are remunerated and are required to attend meetings and otherwise to devote two days per month on average to the work of the Board. Duties are similar to those of a company director and will include responsibility for the proper exercise of the statutory functions of the Board.
For an application form with further details, please contact:
Mr E J Thoms
Clerk to Scrabster Harbour Trust
c/o Young Robertson & Co
29 Traill Street
THURSO, KW14 8EG
Tel: 01847 893247
E-mail: viw@youngrob.co.uk
Closing date for applications – noon on 4th August 2023
In keeping with its commitment to a minimal impact on the environment and the natural world, timber products specialist GMG Energy has announced that is planting another 10,000 trees in a swathe of forest it owns in the far north-east of Scotland.
The latest enhancement of its strategic reserve of timber is part of an ongoing resource replenishment programme which is based on the industry standard of one-for-one, but the company has substantially exceeded that target in most recent years.
The new planting will take place on 400 acres of softwood-planted land at Quintfall Forest, towards the east coast south of John O’Groats, which GMG Energy purchased early last year to protect future supply and increase its resilience to market shocks.
It will be overseen by forestry consultant Donald McClelland, from Caithness, who will assemble a team to undertake the planting and will then manage the growth and wellbeing of the crop until maturity after 35 years.
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GMG Energy Team
Malcolm Morrison, Director of GMG Energy, said: “We are committed to replacing every log of timber that we use in our sawmill, biomass and timber products facility in the Strath of Halladale in Sutherland and this latest tranche of planting maintains that momentum.
“We are also dramatically reducing our reliance on diesel fuels with the recent installation of a solar array of more than 100 photovoltaic panels on the roof of the main production facility at the plant.
“Quintfall is just over 20 miles from our base of operation at Bighouse Farm, so it will not add to the road miles burden and planting there will chime with our wish to invest locally and provide a reliable resource for other local companies.”
The company, which has a turnover in the region of £2 million, has also installed a high-tech preservation tank which will provide treated and stress-tested timber products for local concerns which previously had to source supply from much further afield.
The Highland Council, in conjunction with Eastern Airways, is delighted to announce that August 2023 will see a special rate of just £49.99 per ticket being applied across every seat booked on the Wick-Aberdeen air service.
Bookings for the promotional period opened on 1 July 2023 and will close on 30 August 2023. During that period, any standard ticket booked for travel in August will be available at the flat rate of £49.99 one-way.
The promotion will help inform a wider study supported by Dounreay, a division of Magnox Ltd, to help understand the drivers of demand on the service and to provide an evidence base for future planning and development of the Wick-Aberdeen route.
Councillor Raymond Bremner, Leader of The Highland Council and Chair of the Wick John O’Groats Airport Consultative Committee, said: “The Council has been delighted to support the delivery of lifeline air services from the North Highlands for over a year now, providing almost 9,000 passengers a fast, affordable and reliable way to travel between Wick and Aberdeen. The service has continued to grow as we enter our second year, and at current progress we are on track to carry about 11,000 passengers in 2023/24.
“This special promotional period will give a great opportunity for those who have thought about flying but not yet taken the plunge to give it a go at a guaranteed low price point. With flights twice daily throughout the week, as well as a Sunday service, there are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of this fantastic deal.
“It is vital to us that this service continues to grow and evolve in line with the needs of the communities it serves, and the wider piece of work that this promotion is supporting will help to generate really valuable data, enabling us to deliver an even better service to the North Highlands.”
Roger Hage, Commercial Director at Eastern Airways, said: “Any regional air service is aimed at generating increased accessibility, whether to help promote business development and regional prosperity or help support the burgeoning leisure benefits Caithness has to offer.
“While passenger numbers have grown year on year by 35%, this collaborative period of supported fares through August will help bring more from outside the region to see what Caithness, Wick & Thurso offers while also providing an added incentive for those living and working in Caithness to visit Aberdeen or connect onward”
David Calder, Head of Sustainability and Socio Economics at Dounreay, said: “Air services from Wick have demonstrated positive numbers since their return last year and aside from the obvious benefit of a window of lower price flights for all travellers in challenging economic times, getting a better understanding of the impact of price on personal choices around working and travel habits post pandemic will help build the case for the nature of air connectivity to and from the area beyond the term of the current PSO.”