Jobs boost as technology firm takes Capital offices

ONE of Scotland's fastest growing technology firms is to move to the Capital - providing the city's economy with a fresh jobs boost.

Craneware - a company that develops software for the multi-billion dollar American healthcare system - is to move into the former New Town headquarters of financial giant Standard Life.

The company, currently based in Livingston, is to move into the Tanfield office complex following its 20 million refurbishment.

News of the deal - which will see an initial 75 highly-skilled jobs relocate to Edinburgh but with the option of that growing to as many as 150 - comes as a series of new economic statistics suggest Edinburgh's economy is continuing to recover.

It is the latest investment boost for Edinburgh, after Tesco Bank - which already has its headquarters at Haymarket - announced it would open a second office in the Capital at South Gyle and Japanese engineering giant Mitsubishi said it would invest 100 million in a new Centre for Advanced Technology in the Edinburgh area.

Stewart Taylor, director of business space at CB Richard Ellis, which represented Tanfield owner The Carlyle Group, said: "I think one of the things that attracted them was the flexibility and they know that if they grow, there is space."

Craneware is run by chief executive Keith Neilson, from Ratho, and is worth 140 million. It has its current headquarters at Rosebank Road in Livingston but also operates in Atlanta and Arizona and posted 4.6m of profits last year.

In the last 18 months, 31 large-scale foreign direct investment deals have taken place in Edinburgh.

And in the three months to the end of August the number of new businesses incorporated in Edinburgh surged by more than a quarter to 1116.

New figures by Essential Edinburgh - which promotes the city centre 'business improvement district' - show that monthly retail sales surged by 7.6 per cent in September compared to a year earlier.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city's economic development leader, said: "We are lucky that investment is keeping up in this city.

"In comparison to other cities, job figures have held up relatively well."