A total of 40 jobs have been lost after the directors of Dundee contractor Sustainable Energy Scotland (SES) called in administrators.
Managing director Callum Milne said the voluntary step to bring in Begbies Traynor had been taken with “regret”, but was necessary after trading was hit by the “rollercoaster” carbon trading market and a “significant bad debt”.
In a statement, Mr Milne said efforts were being made to redeploy up to 15 of the staff affected by the situation.
Some of those new positions may be within RedwellGB, Mr Milne’s other locally-based business.
“It is with regret that Sustainable Energy Scotland has been placed into voluntary administration,” Mr Milne said. “The energy efficiency funding market is extremely volatile, often changing on a daily basis.
“Much of our work was fundedby Energy Company Obligation, aGovernment scheme to obligate larger suppliers to deliver energy efficiency measures to domestic premises inBritain.
“Recent weeks have seen the carbon price under ECO 2, the second phase of the initiative, crashing to an all-time low, putting companies such as ours in a position that we cannot trade carbon profitably.
“Sustainable Energy Scotland is one of a number of companies that have been forced into this position due tothe rollercoaster nature of the carbon-trading market.
“The situation was hampered further by a significant bad debt, which placed us in an untenable position.”
SES was formed in 2012 by Mr Milne and his brother-in-law David Small.
By the time the firm moved to its new headquarters at Wester GourdieIndustrial Estate last spring, turnover had reached £1 million and its workforce had grown to more than 40.
“It is sad to hear that another business in the region has gone down,” Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commercepresident Tim Allan said.
“Dundee and Angus is behind the Scottish average for most economic indicators and the loss of any business like this is deeply regretted. Our thoughts are with the employees.”A bitter blowThe loss of Sustainable EnergyScotland is another bitter blowfor Dundee’s economy, writes Graham Huband.
SES was set up three years ago and appeared to have a bright future ahead of it.
The management team identified a gap in the ultra-competitiveenergy efficiency sector andcommitted to plugging that hole.
The idea to target domestic properties and smaller construction projects was a good one and the business climbed to a millionpound turnover within twoyears.
Sadly, just 12 months further down the line, SES is no longer.
The firm blames market volatility and a bad debt for its demise.
It really is awful that SES has been tipped over the edge in this way.
But my first thoughts yesterday were with the redundant workers.
A very sad situation all round.