Lab equipment reuse firm hopes to deliver 120 jobs in old DHL depot

A green technology company that gives unwanted laboratory equipment a second life hopes to create 120 jobs at a former DHL depot in the south of Scotland.

UniGreenScheme has expanded into a new refurbishment centre on Irongray Road in Dumfries.

Backed by a £420,000 grant from South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), it hopes to create the jobs over the next 10 years.

The company works with more than 90 universities and hundreds of other organisations across the UK, refurbishing surplus laboratory equipment that might otherwise go to waste.

The company was launched in Wales in 2015 by a student frustrated at seeing usable laboratory equipment being thrown away.

It has since grown to become one of the largest laboratory equipment reuse organisations in the world.

UniGreenScheme opened premises in southern Scotland, at Lochmaben, in 2018.

Its new site gives the business significantly more space to expand operations and keep specialist equipment in use for longer.

In addition to the new jobs, it said the expansion should help reduce waste and cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 4,400 cars off the road.

Managing director Michael McLeod said the company was "incredibly grateful" for the support from SOSE.

"Demand for our resale services is growing fast, and without this investment we simply couldn't keep up with it," he said.

He said Scotland had been central to the growth of its operations.

"We now work with every university in Scotland, and the move to Irongray Road gives us the space to take on much more surplus laboratory equipment and give it a second life rather than see it go to waste," he said.

"It means more jobs in Dumfries and more people dedicated to rehoming scientific equipment, while allowing our new site to play a much bigger role in creating a world-leading laboratory equipment reuse and recertification centre here in the south of Scotland."

Jane Morrison-Ross, SOSE's chief executive, said it was exactly the kind of investment they wanted to see - "practical, ambitious and rooted in a global challenge".

The Scottish government's secretary for climate action and rural affairs, Gillian Martin, said the factory showed how "reducing, reusing and recycling materials" had a "huge role to play in Scotland's response to tackling the climate crisis".