News

BCA Member Neil McColm from McColm Civil & Structural Engineers recently took on the challenge of skateboarding 80 miles to raise donations and awareness of mental health. Neil's Push for Life challenge is in memory of his friend Adrian ‘Lionheart’ McCallum, who sadly took his own life. Neil's goal is to help at least one person dealing with the same issues as his friend.

Neil challenged himself to skateboard from Prestwick to Largs, row to Cumbrae, skateboard around Cumbrae, row back to Largs then skateboard home to Prestwick for a beer. He successfully completed the challenge after 12.5 hours and managed to raise over £9K for mental health.

Neil also wore fellow BCA member Launch Digital's Pink Kilt while skateboarding!

Let’s Push for Life….

Some of the members of Business Club Ayrshire met for an amazing meal at Scott’s Restaurant in Troon, part of the Buzzworks Group.

Members from the following business sectors attended: Finance Broker, Commercial Cleaning Services, Civil & Structural Engineering, Pensions & Wealth Management, Building Trades, Property & Serviced Apartments, Marketing & Web Design, Timber & Damp Surveys, all discussing new opportunities and business leads for 2022.

The food, drink and venue is highly recommended if you are in the area - it is a must visit!

For further information please get in touch - [email protected]

Launch Digital celebrated ten years in business on February 10th this year!

The agency began trading in 2012 with a small team and after a name change, re-brand, re-location and second office in Glasgow remain a small, client focused, family business. With a focus on quality customer service, Launch is proud of their many long-standing clients in the local area and further afield who they continue to work closely with. The size of the team at Launch allows them to provide a personal, approachable service to all clients which they believe works best in the creative industry.

The team at Launch have worked with over 700 clients in a range of different sectors over the years. They have launched over 500 websites and are proud of their creative portfolio in the many services they provide: including branding, web design, graphic design, social media, and search marketing.

Launch Digital’s success in Ayrshire encouraged them to expand their services in Glasgow, where they acquired a new office on Bothwell Street in 2017 to meet and work closely with their growing list of Glasgow clients.

Launch would like to thank all their clients, partners, sponsorship connections and everyone who has supported the agency over the past 10 years, and the team look forward to many more years of providing rocket fuel for businesses.

One of Rowallans Approved Specialist Contractors, Insula Preserve, recently completed a project to eradicate Dry Rot from a large semi-detached villa for a property developer client.

Rowallan originally inspected the property for another prospective purchaser where the only visual evidence of Dry Rot was red spore dust in the rear kitchen projection of the ground floor. There were, however, various other indications that decay was likely to be widespread throughout adjacent areas and out initial budget assessment was enough to put them off purchasing the property.

Subsequently, a developer purchased the property factoring in the substantial allowance for remedial works. Following substantial exposure to the affected areas by the developers own labour, they invited Rowallan to carry out another inspection to specify, cost and subsequently organise remedial works to be undertaken. The initial instruction was only to undertake the specialist remedial works, structural repairs and treatments (with the remainder of works such as wall and ceiling linings, finishings, etc to be carried out by the developer’s own labour. Due to the fact that some structural repairs would be superseded by new structural alterations to provide a more modern layout it was agreed the most practical and economic method would be for these structural changes to be undertaken by the specialist contractor at the same time. This involved forming new internal and external openings some of which required major propping and beam installation and subsequent masonry repair.

Whilst all of the above was challenging (and costly!), works were able to be completed within the budget allowed by the developer and one saving grace was that the Dry Rot outbreak could be eradicated before it has spread to the adjoining property.

Business Club member and long standing business Brown & Steele Joiners and Building Contractors, launch new website development for 2020. Brown & Steele worked with fellow business club member, Launch Digital to develop a creative, responsive website which showcases the quality of services and case studies carried out by Brown & Steele. The website aims to build online awareness of the company’s success in the local area, and attract more enquiries for the business.

Brown & Steele based in Prestwick, Ayrshire have been providing quality, professional joinery and building services for many years. The company carry out a wide range of general building works and maintenance on commercial and domestics properties, covering all types of projects large and small including complete house builds, full project management, extensions, loft conversions, double glazing, kitchens & bathrooms and more.

Brown & Steele pride themselves on overseeing projects from design to completion to ensure projects are completed on time and to the highest quality standard.

This week Business Club Ayrshire members attended a fantastic Behind The Scenes event organised by the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce and hosted by Emergency One Group Ltd at their impressive facility in Cumnock!

Emergency One is firmly established as UK market leaders in the manufacture, service and support of specialist Fire and Rescue Service appliances, along with a growing export presence worldwide. The company now has a workforce of over 200 people operating from two production facilities in their 8-acre campus.

Big thanks to John, Chester and Elliot for the factory tour and the excellent presentation about their company!

A major part of our thoughts at BCA meetings is looking for ways to support local Organisations.

As we hold our fortnightly meetings in Unity Grill in Ayr we heard about their commitment to provide holiday meals to children across Ayr North - these kids may otherwise go without a hot meal during school holidays. Unity Grill, in partnership with South Ayrshire Council and The 10:10 Trust, agreed to provide over 2,000 hot, nutritious, soups/meals over the Christmas holiday period.

As a group we decided to see how we could help with this challenge!

It wasn’t money that was required of us, but simply time! This was time to help prepare the food, and then to help get it to those who needed it. This was food prep in a scale we had not seen before – cleaning, peeling, chopping, grating various forms or veg in huge amounts. For many of us it was the first time in a commercial kitchen! Due to the time it was taking to grate the carrot mountain, we decided it would be best if Business Club Ayrshire donated a couple of food processors, which allowed us to speed up considerably. Thanks to Andy Kerr of Kerr Roofing for having this eureka moment as we may still be there grating otherwise! As our confidence (and ability) grew we even managed some additional preparation for the Community Christmas Dinners hosted by Angela in Unity Grill on Christmas Day, and the one hosted by the 10:10 Trust.

After all the prep we helped create gallons of soup, trays of pasta and cooked 100’s of baked potatoes, all ready for the food delivery truck the next day.

During the days we provided a couple of helpers to assemble and serve up the hot meals on The 10:10 Trusts’ double decker bus where the kids congregated for some fun on the climbing wall and games consoles while having some lunch. We helped provide soup, a choice of meals, sandwiches and a snack. It makes 4 stops and tries to reach as many kids as possible.

We managed to cover 6 shifts in total over the festive period which amounted to over 60 hours of support for this excellent initiative! We also gained some valuable skills in kitchen as an added bonus!

Our second successful BCA on tour event was hosted by our very own member - Neil from McColm Civil and Structural Engineers who gave us a behind the scenes insight into the remarkable, thriving engineering company he and Richard have grown!

Thanks to our BCA president, Laurence Malyon from Donnini Apartments for giving a presentation on behalf of the Business Club, highlighting the clubs core values.

Also thank you to all attendees, we hope you had a great morning and look forward to seeing you at future events and/or if you would like to enquire about joining BCA as a member please get in touch.

Local charity, Whiteley's Retreat recently launched their new, innovative children's book, written by Lorraine Johnston, to raise awareness and funds for Whiteley's Retreat. Whiteley's are a fantastic organisation, based in Ayrshire providing free therapeutic shorts breaks for children, young people and their families with cancer and life altering illnesses.

BCA members Launch Digital and Kestrel Press offered to help in the development of the book. Both businesses were delighted to get involved with this exciting project and worked closely with Lorraine and Maxine to create the perfect book which reflects the ethos and values of Whiteley's Retreat. Launch Digital worked on the design and layout of the new children’s book, and Kestrel Press printed and bound the books on sustainable paper.

“I can’t thank Launch and Kestrel Press enough for taking on the design and print project of Whit of Whiteleys Wood, and helping me get the book over the line to print. WoWW is a wonderful creation written by Lorraine Johnston and brought to life by the talented illustrator Mandy Sinclair. I hope to raise awareness of Whiteleys Retreat and the vital services we offer to families throughout the region. A children’s book will spread the word in a much more light hearted fashion and bring joy to so many young people and their families. Hopefully, we can raise funds along the way too from the sale of the book. Every penny from the sale of each book goes to charity, as these kind hearted creatives have donated their services.”

Maxine Allan, Chief Executive of Whiteleys Retreat.
www.whiteleysretreat.com