Dundee engineering specialist Albacom putting wheels in motion for growth

The firm specialises in electrical, mechanical, sustainable energy and assembly engineering services, and chief executive Jim Davidson says he has driven this diversification and partnership ethos since joining the company in 2015. He said: “Albacom has always had a great name in the industry and for many years our main focus was electronics. But I have a passion for diversification and change management, and I knew we could expand our customer base across a wider range of sectors, such as oil and gas, so we now also offer mechanical assembly and sustainable solutions as part of the package.” The firm started life in the 1950s as Ferranti and says it has gone on to establish a local and international client base with a network of global partners. Mr Davidson, whose background is in engineering, said the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to identify what Albacom needed to grow, and gave the team time to plan and prepare. “We had already decided to continue exploring opportunities across the sustainable and renewable sectors and in 2020 we invested in a joint venture, Genista Energy, to offer sustainable, green energy battery engineering solutions.” However, further growth would require financing – which is when the firm turned to the UMi Debt Finance Scotland loan scheme. Supported under the Scottish Growth Scheme, UMi Debt Finance aims to help Scottish businesses innovate, grow and diversify. He said: “Albacom needed more working capital, more people with the right skillsets, and funding for research and development.” Mr Davidson said that after teaming up with UMi Debt Finance Scotland, "now we’re perfectly positioned to manufacture our new products and get them to market, both in the UK and internationally". The business has the funding required to diversify further “and I’m looking forward to moving forward with our expansion plans”. Tom Brock, UMI Debt Finance Scotland fund director, said: “Albacom is exactly the type of company we love to talk to – they’ve thought very carefully about what they need to do to grow the company and make it thrive, with exciting products in the pipeline that look to future problem-solving and not just surviving the next few years.” A message from the Editor: Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.