Engineer plans to double workforce

AN ENGINEERING firm is planning to double the size of its workforce in Scotland to 40 on the back of the burgeoning renewables industry.

Robert Butler has been appointed as regional director of Hurleypalmerflatt and he expects the expansion of its offices in Glasgow will take place over the next two to three years. The company has operations across the UK and in Australia, India and Singapore.

Butler said: “There are significant opportunities in specialist energy consultancy. We are on the cusp of a mini-renewables revolution.

“We will see tens of thousands of jobs created in the UK in this sector in the next ten to 12 years. We are not far away from seeing significant progress in Scotland and down the east coast of the UK to service what will arise from offshore.”

Butler joined Hurleypalmerflatt from global engineering and design consultancy Ramboll, where he was involved in a range of Scottish and international engineering projects including the design of the new Forth crossing and the Ferrari World indoor theme park in Abu Dhabi.

He said Scottish engineering skills were “the light we keep hidden under the bushel. We are not shouting enough about that.”

Hurleypalmerflatt is a niche engineering firm involved in a range of sectors, such as the build and design of data centres and trading floors, as well as reducing energy consumption for large property estates.

The company recently signed a deal with oil and gas group Chevron to cut energy usage at its site in Aberdeen.

“If Scotland is going to balance itself to a low carbon economy we need a better balance of supply and demand,” said Butler.

“We seem to be making big strides in the supply side. What we need to do is focus our attention on the demand side. That is a huge area in the next 25 years.”