Building Briefs - November 4th

• Burger King drives into Dunfermline retail park

The fast food chain has agreed a 20-year lease with landlord Pittsburgh Fife Ltd on a 2,750 sq ft drive-thru unit and will pay an annual rent of £82,500 per annum.

Set within the newly constructed Pittsburgh Retail Park, Burger King’s new drive-thru will operate from a busy roadside location close to both Haltbeath Retail Park and Fife Leisure Park.

The landlord was advised by Canning Vale during the transaction.

• ‘Cobots’ enjoy some action as Smart Hub Lanarkshire opens doors

Smart Hub Lanarkshire - a state-of-the-art centre that will help manufacturing SMEs to grow and prepare for the future – has opened its doors for in-person events.

Jamie Hepburn MSP, minister for higher education, further education, youth employment and training, was one of the first to see the new facility during a visit to New College Lanarkshire on Wednesday 3rd November.

The Smart Hub, which is a partnership between North Lanarkshire Council, New College Lanarkshire and the University of Strathclyde, is home to a robotics and automation training facility and a dedicated space for SMEs to meet, learn and access business support and academic expertise.

Based at New College Lanarkshire’s Motherwell Campus, the facility ‘virtually’ opened in April this year and has since hosted six webinar events, attracting almost 250 attendees from a wide range of manufacturing businesses.

Now, with Covid restrictions easing, the Hub has begun to welcome visitors for live demonstrations of collaborative robots – known as ‘cobots’ – in action. 

Mr Hepburn was treated to a demonstration showcasing the capabilities of cobots and how these can be integrated in to different manufacturing environments. 

With demonstrations set to become a regular fixture at Smart Hub Lanarkshire, SMEs who are who are considering introducing automation and want to see what cobots can do for them can now book an appointment by getting in touch with the Hub team.

As well as technical advice, the Hub can also offer SMEs insight into business support services available to them.

• Mental health matters at Russell Roof Tiles

Russell Roof Tiles is rolling out its first dedicated programme to support its team’s mental health and wellbeing.

The independent manufacturer of concrete derivatives employs approx. 150 staff including at three sites in Burton on Trent and Lochmaben (Scotland).

Yesterday’s National Stress Awareness Day was set up by the International Stress Management Association, with the mission of raising awareness of the effects of distress in the workplace and strategies to address it. The day aims to remind everyone that good stress management is essential to provide best possible performance.

Russell Roof Tiles is offering its staff support through a number of different initiatives including in person and virtual one to one session and groups sessions.

The firm’s initiative follows the recent ‘Big Brew’, campaign, launched last month to address the mental health crisis in the construction sector.

• Double celebrations as Burns’s farm gets two new grants

The charity running Ellisland Farm is celebrating after receiving two new grants.

The Robert Burns Ellisland Trust received £10,000 each from The Architectural Heritage Fund and Museums and Galleries Scotland. The Architectural Heritage Fund support, which comes from the William Grant Foundation, will allow emergency repairs to be carried out ahead of longer term plans to develop the site as a centre for music and songwriting.  The Museums and Galleries Scotland grant will help improve the charity’s ability to recruit members and increase audiences.  

Ellisland is increasingly recognised as being of critical importance to the creative development of Robert Burns. He designed and built the farm himself as his first marital home with Jean Armour. He produced a quarter of all his songs at Ellisland, including Auld Lang Syne.

Last year, a new charitable trust assumed control of the site, but faced significant challenges due to lockdown and dwindling reserves. Since then the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust have embarked on a fundraising and membership drive as well as developing long term plans to safeguard its future.

• Campbeltown Airport prepares for new runway

Work is progressing at Campbeltown Airport to prepare the runway for new asphalt to be laid as part of the refurbishment project.

Contractors began planing the runway to remove the existing asphalt, which had been showing signs of deterioration.

The runway refurbishment project is a significant project for the airport. The estimated £4 million investment will protect the long term future of the airport and allow weight restrictions for aircrafts over 6.85 tonnes to be removed.

• Sunamp signs £50m agreement with Thumos to roll out energy saving thermal storage products in China

Sunamp has signed an agreement during COP26 to collaborate with distribution company Thumos to expand sales of its high energy density, high power density thermal batteries into residential and commercial markets in China.

The memorandum of understanding is expected to lead to £50 million in sales for Sunamp over the next five years and to lead to the establishment of a Sunamp factory in China. The thermal storage company, which has its global headquarters and manufacturing facility in Scotland, is already active in 17 countries worldwide. The company recently opened its first factory under licence in Korea.

Sunamp and Thumos have already committed to work together roll out 400 Heat Batteries into high-end apartments of the prestige Hitime projects in Shanghai and into a large pipeline of projects across China.