In 2019, more than 350 workers lost their jobs when Dundee building services firm McGill collapsed into administration.
McGill & Co was established in 1981 as a specialist building contractor.
The company appointed to oversee the administration, KPMG LLP said at the time difficult trading conditions and late payments by some customers forced the company into administration.
As a result, a total of 374 staff were made redundant.
But three years on, one of the long-time directors of the firm has bounced back with his own venture.
Nick McGill was a director of McGill’s facilities management division for nearly a decade to 2018.
His new venture, Summit Facilities Services, now has £2 million annual turnover.
‘The company got way too big’
He cited differences in the vision of the firm for the reason for stepping aside at McGill a year before it went into administration.
“I left before that, but it was a difficult time,” he said.
“With a family business, there was disagreements about the direction it was going in and strategies.
“It was obviously not in good health and I left in 2018 with a view to setting up my own business.
“The company just got way too big, the overheads were huge and they ran out of cash.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to run a business, or something I wanted to have my name associated with.”
McGill was acquired by Broughty Ferry businessman Graeme Carling weeks after it fell into administration.
After winning millions of pounds of work and making several acquisitions, the business now has more than 200 staff.
From redundancy to £2m turnover
Mr McGill and long-time colleague Matthew McCallum set up Summit Facilities Services in 2019.
The firm recorded £2 million turnover in the 12 months to September 2021.
It also acquired Tayside Automatic Doors in 2020.
Summit now has 20 employees – many of whom worked at McGill.
Nick said it was important to be a “valued local employer”.
He said: “We’re delighted that we have built up our workforce with fantastic, local tradespeople.
“Quite a lot of the people we’ve taken on – maybe 10 or 11 – were at McGill at some point before.
“We’ve both got good networks of people we’ve worked with before.
“We are also supporting the next generation, investing in the future of the business and the sector, by offering apprenticeships.”
‘We are well on our way’, Summit boss says
The Covid-19 pandemic has provided its own challenges, but Mr McGill said the firm’s success has been about being flexible.
“We got off to a great start in 2019,” he said.
“Following that, we really found our feet in providing the support that our customers needed to keep them going through a very difficult time.
“We feel like we made the right choice in naming the business back in 2019.
“Whether we’ve reached the peak remains to be seen, but with our amazing team and range of capabilities, we are definitely well on our way.”
Looking to the future, the co-founder doesn’t plan to grow the team to the size of workforce McGill took on, but hopes steady growth will be the way forward.
“We’re looking forward to getting back to business as usual,” Mr McGill said.
“We want to continue on at the same rate of growth,”
