Claire Donnelly

The family-owned business provides consumables, plant hire, tools and workwear to the demolition, construction and asbestos sectors.

In its first full financial year of trading revenues hit £1m, up from £600,000 in the first five months of operation. Half of this revenue is generated from branding, while consumables, testing and plant hire account for the other half.

Since the start of the new financial year in April, like-for-like sales have doubled, putting Aspire on course for revenues of £1.5m in the current 12 months.

Company founder and managing director Claire Donnelly has attributes the success to the fact that the company likes to do things differently in the traditional markets of demolition and construction.

Drawing on her 13 years of high street experience working for retailers including New Look, she and her team have successfully applied aspects of the female-dominated retail sector to their industrial markets.

This has included a click-and-collect facility for next-day pickup of many items, or in just five days if the order is for personalised workwear. Aspire has also set up bright and spacious retail space at its headquarters at Hillington Industrial Estate in a bid to create an “an environment for all” ranging from self-employed tradesmen and lorry drivers through to large industrial clients.

Now employing 11 people, Claire, together with her younger brother, Marc Cruickshank, decided to set up Aspire after discovering that the supply chain serving Scotland’s asbestos sector operated almost exclusively from London. From there, they quickly expanded into the demolition and construction sectors.

Claire leads the operational and retail aspects of the business, while her brother is responsible for the hire, testing and respiratory sections. Having previously owned his own tiling company, Marc is also a former asbestos surveyor.

“Efficiency is extremely important to us,” Claire said.

“We also focus on hiring people who are specialists in their field, whether that’s retail, asbestos, engineering or branding. It is very much this team that has driven our growth.”