Kilmarnock's Halo makes connections

The Halo urban regeneration project in Kilmarnock has teamed up with telecoms outfit Onecom to ensure the scheme is one of the 'best connected in the country'.

Marie Macklin, founder and executive chair of the Halo Group, and Paul Lawther, head of Onecom Northern Ireland. Picture: Peter Devlin

As part of the agreement, Onecom will use its Belfast office to establish its Scottish operational and sales hub within The Halo’s enterprise and innovation Centre.

The Halo Scotland Kilmarnock is one of four such developments planned for the UK. Onecom’s office in Belfast, which is also a proposed site for a future Halo, will play a key role in delivering the telecoms to all of these developments.

Marie Macklin, founder and executive chair of The Halo Group, said: “Onecom has demonstrated amazing enthusiasm and energy in their approach to this partnership and I am confident that with them on board The Halo Scotland will be the most connected development in the country.”

Darren Ridge, chief executive Officer of Onecom, added: “To describe The Halo Scotland as exciting is very much an understatement.

“Regeneration projects such as these are bold, brave and very necessary in these straitened times; Onecom is proud and privileged to contribute both its technology knowhow and business expertise.”

The Halo Kilmarnock is a brown-field regeneration initiative located on the site of the former Johnnie Walker bottling plant in the East Ayrshire town.

It is hoped that the scheme, which opens in 2020, will contribute some £120 million of GDP to the Scottish economy annually and create hundreds of jobs.