The eighth edition of Hub South West’s Building for Growth programme is now underway and is inviting all companies that are looking to grow in a sustainable manner by building the skills and internal capacity to take on increasing volumes of business and, as a result could win new work from participating Tier 1 contractors including Morisons, Graham, Morgan Sindall, Ashleigh and Keir.

The programme was designed for businesses in construction and other related sectors based in Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway. It started on the 21st of March and will run through until early June, with 8 half-day sessions (10am – 2pm) over a period of 12 weeks. Throughout the spring 2018 session workshops will focus on topics such as smart tendering, innermetrix profiling, strategic growth and exit options, marketing planning, supplier development programmes, corporate social responsibility and pitching for business.

“There are a lot of good businesses out there, but some have areas where they need to build capacity if they want to rise to the next level,” said Gordon Hunter, hub South West’s Supply Chain Manager who manages the Building for Growth programme.

“For example, many are relying too heavily on the skills of one key person, some of the IT practices are not very efficient or robust, and marketing communications can vary from the sublime to the almost non-existent. A golden rule of the programme is ‘no competitors’, leaving participants free to discuss any business issues, challenges and opportunities in a safe and supportive environment with a like-minded group of business people,” continued Gordon.

Gary Thorn, founder and MD of Cumbernauld-based Cube Glass, won the Best final Presentation Award at the end of the seventh edition of Building for Growth in November: “At first I thought it would be impossible for me to take eight half-days away from the business to attend but, in fact, taking time away from my day to day concerns gave me the opportunity to sit back and look at our long term development and to improve the chances of Cube Glass winning work from some of the Tier One contractors.”