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.”