The family-run company, based in Ecclefechan, employs nearly 50 staff and has been supplying concrete products and associated services for over 50 years.

Hoddam Contracting Ltd is a major building materials supplier across the south of Scotland and one of the most experienced concrete specialists in the region, supplying a wide range of quarry materials, concrete products and services to the building, industrial, agricultural, and domestic markets.

Company director, Laura Gilfillan, applied to take part in the free programme to consider the strategic direction of the business in the coming years and to engage with other businesses in the sector.

Delivered over an eight-week period, the Build Dumfries & Galloway programme was designed and led by hub South West Scotland, a public-private partnership of local authorities, NHS and contractors which delivers community-changing infrastructure projects.

The free Build programme is open to construction companies across the region and covers key business areas including strategic leadership, digital marketing, procurement, finance, cyber security and employment law.

Laura Gilfillan, who took part in the programme with colleague Toni Anderson, said: “We are thrilled to have won this award and really happy that we took part in the Build Dumfries & Galloway programme. For us, the programme provided a fantastic platform to discuss the issues facing our industry, as well as the solutions.

“The programme gave us the tools, advice and guidance to improve our business and was a great opportunity to step away from our usual day-to-day operations to better understand what we need to do to plan for the future.

“Being able to present our business offering and engage directly with Tier 1 contractors - something which we had never considered before - was a real eye opener and very positive discussions have already taken place.”

The Build programme, run in partnership with Dumfries & Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise, is designed to support and help local businesses with ambitions to grow in a sustainable manner by developing skills and the internal capacity to take on increasing volumes of business and the know-how to improve business performance to help them grow, develop contacts and securing future tender opportunities.

The businesses joining Hoddam Contracting on the inaugural Build Dumfries & Galloway programme were Cool & Easy Ltd, DG project solutions Ltd, GTR Contracts Ltd, Hire & Supplies, JDC Consulting Engineers, LIP Construction Ltd, Nairn Construction Ltd and Robert Potter and Partners LLP

hub South West Scotland extended the programme to Dumfries & Galloway after demonstrating successful impacts across Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, where the programme has been running successfully for five years.

Mark Houston, supply chain manager at hub South West, said: “It was a privilege to work with Laura and Toni and all the other businesses on our first Build Dumfries & Galloway programme. We had a highly productive eight weeks and I believe all the participating companies gained significantly from the experience and being able to make the connections to key contractors which can make such a difference to a growing business.

“We would also like to thank our judges who took part in the final day of the programme Ricky Brown, senior operations manager at Morgan Sindall, Neil McIntyre, project management lead, Dumfries and Galloway Council and Claire Renton, head of area at South of Scotland Enterprise who had the onerous task of deciding the winning company.

“We want our programmes to be inspirational and provide a valuable experience for everyone who takes part. We are now actively seeking Ayrshire-based businesses to take part in our next programme, Build Ayrshire, which starts in February next year.”