Delivered by public sector development partner hub South West, in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise, the Build Dumfries and Galloway Programme is designed to help businesses build on their industry skills to successfully achieve their long-term commercial goals.

The free development programme welcomes local construction companies to weekly half-day learning sessions across eight weeks. Each week focuses on a different key business area, covering a variety of topics from strategic leadership and finance, to cyber security and social media marketing.

This marks the second consecutive year of the programme which saw four local companies, T&G Carruthers, Parc Construction, Iron and Pine and A. Henderson Roofing, take part. Participants came from a variety of construction backgrounds, with a range of expertise including roofing, modular construction, civil engineering, stone concrete infrastructure and stone masonry.

Family-run business A. Henderson Roofing was presented with the winning title at the final event. Each participating company provided an in-depth presentation highlighting their key takeaways from the programme and how they plan to implement their new business skills into their future strategy. The winner was selected based on their presentation quality, commitment to learning, and level of growth achieved throughout the programme.

Ashley Henderson, director of A. Henderson Roofing, said: “The Dumfries and Galloway Build Programme has been invaluable to our business. It has hugely helped us with our vision and our future plans for growth.

“We’re looking forward to taking all that we’ve learnt and implementing this into our day-to-day business as we continue to grow our services across the Scottish market.”

Joseph Drugan, community wealth building and social value manager at hub South West Scotland, said: “Once again, local SMEs in Dumfries and Galloway have surpassed our expectations with their commitment to learn and deliver real change across their businesses. It’s been fantastic to work with our participants across this year’s programme and the level of growth they’ve achieved in such a short space of time has been admirable.

“Our Build Programme is not only a great chance for participants to strengthen their skill-set, but also a unique opportunity to meet valuable industry contacts who they can continue to grow relationships with for years to come. We wish our 2023 participants the best of luck as they put their learnings into practice. I have no doubt they’ll thrive in the industry as they continue to work towards their goals.”