A Dundee engineering company is taking over the former Tesco distribution centre in the city in what could deliver major rewards for the industrial scene.
PressureFab designs and manufactures specialist rig topside and subsea equipment and is Scotland’s largest offshore container manufacturer.
Managing director Hermann Twickler said he would not at this stage comment on his company’s move from its Riverside site to the extensive property in the Dryburgh industrial estate.
He indicated it would be “a great local story” when the time was right for him to speak, which he suggested could be after the middle of next month.
There is evidence that the move is under way, not least the PressureFab sign at the junction of Baird Avenue and Telford Road directing delivery traffic to the company’s new home.
Equipment can also been seen stacked up inside the Riverside and Dryburgh yards, suggesting a large-scale flitting operation is under way.
The Dryburgh site was the distribution nerve centre of former Dundee supermarket group William Low, and was kept as a northern distribution hub by Tesco when it took over Low’s.
Tesco controversially closed the site in 2006, putting up to 430 staff out of work, in a reorganisation of all Scottish inward and outward delivery transport to a new site at Livingston.
The Dryburgh property, next to Kingsway, was mothballed and served for the last nine years as a prominent reminder of Dundee’s economic struggles.
Its imminent revival is a signal that the local industrial scene is improving. Not only does it bring a high-profile site back into use, it gives a thriving engineering company bigger premises into which it can expand, possibly leading to more jobs.
PressureFab offers design, fabrication, industrial coating and blast-cleaning services and is a one-stop shop of turn-key solutions for the offshore oil and gas industry.
In October last year the company trumpeted its creation of 25 jobs, taking its workforce to more than 100 as a result of a seven-figure investment.
The firm upgraded its manufacturing equipment and significantly improved its industrial coatings and shot-blasting facilities as part of a two-year improvement project.
PressureFab also invested in a new state-of-the-art CNC machine shop to produce precision tooling for oil and gas and subsea applications.
The investment programme was supported by a £250,000 regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise, but the bulk of the cash was self-funded.
Mr Twickler said at the time that further investment was in the pipeline, with larger capacity CNC machinery to be delivered.
He expected the total outlay in new manufacturing kit to be around £2 million once all of the elements were in place.
“The upgrade has transformed the Dundee-based facility into one of the most technologically advanced steel manufacturing and industrial coating businesses in Scotland,” he added.
“I am confident that it will enable the PressureFab Group to take advantage of future demands from the oil and gas industry, as well as the emerging renewable energy sector.