ECON Engineering, which manufactures more than 80% of the winter maintenance and repair vehicles used on Britain’s roads, has launched a new Scottish company to service gritters and other vehicles for customers across many of Scotland’s 32 local authorities and private sector highways contractors.
With an initial workforce of six specialist staff, Econ Scotland plans to make further new appointments over the coming months. The new venture represents a £1.3 million investment by Econ Engineering and will be based out of a new purpose-built service hub in Alloa, near Stirling, from where the team will service winter maintenance and road repair vehicles for councils and contractors.
A fleet of 117 Econ winter maintenance vehicles has been deployed on a hire basis to 14 Scottish councils and two major trunk road contractors this autumn in preparation for the winter weather conditions ahead.
Econ operations director Jonathan Lupton said: “We are firmly committed to Scotland, which already accounts for over 30% of Econ’s turnover, and with the launch of our Alloa operation we will be able to provide even better service levels and rapid turnaround times for our Scottish customers. This £1.3m investment in the new business and our state-of-the-art depot is a huge deal for us as a family-owned firm and signals the importance of Scotland to us as a business.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here