Author: Coralinn

Clyde Space, the pioneering company which designed and manufactured Scotland’s first satellite, today (Wednesday) announced it is opening its first subsidiary company in the United States.

As First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the company’s Glasgow headquarters today (Wednesday), CEO Craig Clark also revealed that to meet rising demand for the company’s pace-setting products, it has increased its current manufacturing capacity by creating an additional 2500 square feet ‘clean room’ for building and testing satellites.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Clyde Space is a great example of an innovative Scottish company expanding internationally and, with financial support from Scottish Enterprise, committed to creating new jobs in Glasgow.

“This announcement by Clyde Space clearly demonstrates Scotland’s growing influence in the space technology field.

“Our cost effective and supportive business environment, strong and highly skilled workforce and world-class universities are not only enabling the development of Scottish companies but also attracting business from leading names in the space technology industry like NASA and MIT.

“The spacecraft sector showcases Scotland’s scientific and engineering excellence and enhances our global reputation for research, design and innovation.”

Craig said: “Our American customers have been asking us to open in the USA for a number of years and we see huge opportunities there both in commercial space activity and also in the defence sector. Over 90% of our sales are exported and it is the logical move for our first investment overseas.

“About 40% of our business already comes from the USA through the supply of sub-systems to organisations such as US data company SPIRE Global, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), NASA and the US Air Force.

“We also supply full spacecraft to the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Establishing a US company will put us in a position to attract more work from the American government including in areas where we are currently restricted.

“At first, the US company will concentrate on developing sales but we expect to quickly establish a manufacturing base replicating what we have in Glasgow; the emphasis being a US facility, staffed by US citizens, producing ‘made in USA’ spacecraft.

“In the past we have looked at joint ventures in the USA but our analysis has indicated that expanding on our own is the best option. We are using Scottish, UK and USA government help to select the correct location.”

The acquisition of more space at its current headquarters follows the company’s most successful year and comes just 13 months after moving from its previous base because it was too small.

In just over a year the Clyde Space team has doubled to 75 staff and that is expected to increase to 100 this year. The recruitment will bolster spacecraft development, manufacturing, business development and back-office functions.

An average of four spacecraft a month are being produced in the current ‘clean room’, a number that is expected to increase rapidly in the next 12-18 months.

Craig said the demand for mass-produced spacecraft and systems was driving the company’s rapid growth and is making Clyde Space a global leader in the design and manufacture of CubeSats.

He also announced the company’s performance in the current year continues the growth seen in recent years. With revenue this year to date already exceeding the total income of last year, turnover to the end of April 2016 is expected to be $8m, a fivefold increase over three years.

Craig said: “I often come across people who see the space industry as not a serious business market, more suited to scientists and technology geeks. However, with the space market showing sustained growth at almost 10% over the past few years, and our specific market segment of small satellites growing at close to 40% per year, it’s clear there is an excellent business case.

“We are creating multiple high-skilled jobs here in Glasgow – I think the space industry is a hidden gem in the UK’s economy and I’m delighted we’ve managed to bring the space industry to Scotland.”

Clyde Space produces small satellite, nanosatellite and CubeSat systems – fully functional satellites that ‘piggy-back’ on other launches to minimise costs and boost the commercial viability of space research.

Since moving into its current base just over a year ago, £500,000 has been invested in space environment test facilities but demand for its products is already outstripping capacity.

Current recruiting has been part-funded by a Regional Selective Assistance Grant of £480,000 from Scottish Enterprise.

Craig said: “Due to the need for highly skilled staff to service our customer needs, it can take time for us to recruit and embed new members of the team.  Given how fast our market and company are growing, we really need to recruit ahead of time.

“Scottish Enterprise have always been excellent support to Clyde Space and we were delighted with the RSA grant which is a great help to our continued growth.”

Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said: “Clyde Space are to be congratulated on the phenomenal growth they’ve achieved in recent years.  We are pleased to be supporting the company’s latest expansion in Glasgow with a Regional Selective Assistance grant and look forward to working closely with them as they expand further into the US.”

Other recent orders won by Clyde Space include a £1million deal to build three CubeSats for American global broadcast company Outernet Inc in an international partnership funded by the UK Space Agency and a prestigious order from the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy.

UKube-1, Scotland’s first satellite, was designed and built by Clyde Space in Glasgow. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in July 2014. UKube-1 recently completed its primary mission for the UK Space Agency and now continues with its next phase of operations.

Clyde Space is backed by private equity specialists Coralinn LLP, the investment vehicle of leading Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Stewart OBE, and Nevis Capital owned by John and James Pirrie.

Hugh Stewart said: “Clyde Space has been an incredible success and has grown its market substantially over the past few years. It is tremendous credit to the management team that Craig has put together at Clyde Space that they have done this from their Scottish base. The quality of graduates and people together with the support from local agencies have all contributed to the company achieving its goals.

“The move to the USA is the logical development and will be an exciting move for everyone involved.  The market opportunities for the company are huge.”

Well here we are again, it’s the start of a new year and Rosewood Homes proud to announce a new Social Housing project in Carluke.

The Shieldhill Road development is situated on the site of the old Carluke Rovers football Stadium, this comprises of 5 blocks which houses six one bedroom properties and nineteen two bedrooms. Once again Rosewood are working in partnership with Clyde Valley Housing Association providing new homes for an area in high demand.

Land Engineering, one of Scotland’s leading providers of landscaping, ground maintenance and civil engineering services, has appointed TOM Vehicle Rental in a £6 million deal.

TOM will provide and manage its commercial vehicle fleet of up to 200 vans and specialist vehicles for the next five years.

The deal involves TOM acquiring the existing Land Engineering fleet of 160 commercial vehicles and renting it back to the company, as well as renting a further 40 commercial vehicles, in line with seasonal demand.

With Land Engineering working on projects across Scotland, the new deal aims to deliver significant efficiencies.

Driver downtime will be minimised through servicing and running repairs carried out by TOM’s mobile technicians, major repairs will be done at its expanding depot network and replacement vehicles will be offered any time a vehicle needs to come off the road.

The core fleet of vehicles is exclusively Mercedes-Benz and new replacements are being supplied and maintained through TOM’s own dealerships at Ayr, Airdrie, Aberdeen and Nairn. Also included is specialist software which tracks vehicle utilisation and aims to deliver further efficiency savings.

Stuart Dillett, managing director of Land Engineering, said: “The use of a managed fleet in this way allows our operational costs to be reduced, largely through the flexibility it brings and the improvement in efficiency through customer focussed service and more efficient breakdown support.

“In essence, the release of our previous obligations around our fleet allows us to focus our investments on what touches our customers”.

Dillett confirmed that funds raised through the sale of the Land Engineering fleet have provided further working capital which the company has re-invested in new operational plant and machinery to support its next phase of growth.

James Rafferty, group sales and operational director at TOM Vehicle Rental, said: “We are confident that this deal will allow Land Engineering to focus on its core activities and growth, without the distraction or worry of maintaining and customising a fleet of vehicles.

“It also eliminates any residual value risk to the business on disposal and any worry about depreciating assets, as the vehicles move off balance sheet and become a fixed all-inclusive monthly cost.”

Some of our key achievements to date include:

• • Supplying over 700 CubeSat EPS units, over 700 CubeSat Batteries and just shy of 1000 CubeSat solar panels – we now have over a combined 300 years successful on-orbit operation for our CubeSat products!
  • We made Scotland’s first satellite, a 3U CubeSat called UKube-1, which was a UK Space Agency​ mission – UKube-1 was successfully launched in July last year.
  • We’ve also had fun working on so many other space missions from sizes of a few kg to well over a tonne.

• It has also been great to welcome CubeSat applications companies to Glasgow, turning the city into a real hub for nanosatellite innovation.

Thank you to all our customers, friends, colleagues and followers for your support. Watch this space as we look to add some delta-v to our trajectory over the next 10 years

CLYDE SPACE, the pioneering company which designed and manufactured Scotland’s first satellite, is collaborating with a prestigious American university and a team of leading US-based scientists to develop a “game-changer” in vital new technology to study ocean biology.

The Glasgow company announced today it is building CubeSats to observe the changing biology of the surface ocean and its implications for the marine food chain, climate scientists, fisheries and coastal resource managers, and a range of other experts from the military to oil spill responders.

The project is being led by John M Morrison, Professor of Physics and Physical Oceanography at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and also involves Cloudland Instruments of Santa Barbara, CA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, and Hawk Institute for Space Sciences, Pocomoke City, MD.

Professor Morrison said it was a “science dream team”.

Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark said: “We’re extremely excited to be involved in this mission.  Not only will we being working with the A-Team of World Ocean Color scientists, we’ll be producing two of the most advanced CubeSats ever built.”

Professor Morrison said a recent report by the National Academy of Science showed ocean colour satellites provided a unique vantage point for observing the changing biology in the surface ocean.

He said: “Space observations have transformed biological oceanography and are critical to advance our knowledge of how such changes affect important elemental cycles, such as the carbon and nitrogen cycles, and how the ocean’s biological processes influence the climate system.

“In addition, ocean colour remote sensing allows scientists to assess changes in primary production, which forms the base of the marine food chain. Thus, continuous satellite observation of ocean colour is essential to monitoring the health of the marine ecosystem and its ability to sustain important fisheries, especially in a time of global change and acidification.

“Any interruption in the ocean colour record would severely hamper the work of climate scientists, fisheries and coastal resource managers, and an expanding array of other users, from the military to oil spill responders.”

Clyde Space is a leading producer of small satellite, nanosatellite and CubeSat systems ideal for this type of mission.

Craig said: “Previous missions have used large satellites which come with a big price attached whereas the CubeSats are flexible, low-cost and economically viable.

“The aim is for these first two spacecraft will act as a precursor to a constellation of tens of SeaHawks, providing a global view of the health of our oceans and inland waters every day.  This just wouldn’t be possible without the use of miniature spacecraft, so we really are breaking new ground in the use of space every day through miniaturisation.”

Previous ocean monitoring to collect biological data from space used SeaWIFS (Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor). Its development took more than 10 years and cost $14.1m (£9.4m).

The new project is called SOCON (Sustained Ocean Observation from Nanosatellites). It will

develop and construct two SeaHawk CubeSats with HawkEye Ocean Colour Sensors in two years at a cost of $1.675m (£1.12m). The final product will be 130 times smaller (10cm×10cm×34cm), 45 times lighter (approximately 4 kg), with a ground resolution 7-15 times better (150-75 meters per pixel), while still having a Signal/Noise Ratio approximately 50% that of SeaWiFs. The planned launch of the satellites is early 2017.

The initiative is being funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation set up by Intel co-founder Gordon and his wife to encourage ideas that create an enduring impact in the areas of science, environmental observation and patient care.

The announcement of this exciting mission comes as Clyde Space prepares to exhibit at this year’s CubeSat Developer’s Workshop in California where the company will also be presenting its work on spacecraft pointing subsystems (known as an attitude determination and control system).

UKube-1, Scotland’s first satellite, was designed and built by Clyde Space in Glasgow and was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, last July.

The company is backed by private equity specialists Coralinn LLP, the investment vehicle of leading Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Stewart OBE, and Nevis Capital.

Rosewood Homes completes Social Housing project in Carluke in partnership with Clyde Valley Housing Association.

The Dodds Court development which is situated within the town of Carluke is made up of 12, one-bedroom properties was completed in January of this year.

With demand for social housing on the rise, Rosewood has ambitious plans to expand its involvement in social housing projects with local councils in the near future.

TOM Vehicle, the commercial vehicle specialist, has diversified into the consumer car sales market after acquiring Citroen dealer Alistair Fleming.

Airdrie-based TOM, which until now has focused on van hire, sales and fleet management services, continued its recent acquisition spree by purchasing the car retailer for an undisclosed fee.

It adds three car and van dealerships – in Ayr, Kilmarnock and Dundee – to the TOM portfolio, which includes vehicle rental depots Aberdeen, Airdrie, Broxburn, Nairn and Ayr in Scotland, as well as Manchester in England.

The deal comes hot on the heels of TOM’s acquisition of two vehicle rental companies in the Midlands before Christmas.

TOM, founded by James Rafferty as an MOT specialist in 1991, added Leicestershire’s Eurofleet Rental and Nottingam’s Charthire to its portfolio under its strategy to expand south of the Border.

Those deals grew its fleet of commercial vehicles from 6500 to more than 8000, some 20 per cent of which are Citroen.

The acquisition of Alistair Fleming, until now majority owned by car salesman Alistair Fleming, takes the company into new territory.

However Mr Rafferty is confident that TOM’s expertise in commercial vehicles can be brought to bear in car retailing, adding that customers would also benefit from its strong service ethic.

Asked what had attracted TOM Vehicle to Alistair Fleming, Mr Rafferty said: “Its reputation with customers seemed to be quite strong, and as a family business ourselves our reputation with customers and the service we deliver is what we pride ourselves on.

“It seemed to be a nice fit, and it also had some good territories we felt we could add value in and really push the business on in those areas.”
“We’re quite happy – it’s a new adventure for our business moving into cars and retailing cars. We’re quite looking forward to getting on with the new side of it and proving what we can do there.”

Mr Rafferty confirmed the Alistair Fleming staff had all moved over to TOM, which he said gives the company a “strong platform” as it seeks to develop the sites it has inherited.

As a result of the deal the headcount at TOM has risen to more than 500 staff across nine sites. Mr Fleming remains with the business.
Mr Rafferty said the new sites would complement TOM’s existing network – it runs truck and van dealerships in Ayr, Aberdeen and Nairn – and sees an opportunity to add a rental offer to them in time.

He explained: “I think that should be the model – where we have a site people should be able to come in and buy or rent from it.

“I would see us adding a rental operation to those sites in good time.”

TOM plans to add to further commercial rental sites, in Dundee and Nottingham, to its roster in the first quarter of this year.

The most recent accounts available for TOM Vehicle Rental show that it lifted pre-tax profits to £1.6m in the year ended March 31, up from £1.3m, on turnover up 58 per cent to £98.5m.

Asked to assess the impact the latest acquisition would have on the firm’s financial performance, Mr Rafferty noted: “We see it has having a positive financial impact. Financially our business is going from strength to strength [and we have had] record years in terms of turnover and profit. It should be a strong year ahead of us – that is what we are forecasting.”

He added: “The dealership sites at Dundee and Kilmarnock in particular are sleeping giants and we will be doing everything we can to wake them up in 2015.”

Scottish-based TOM Vehicle Rental has acquired Charthire and Eurofleet Rental.

Measham based Eurofleet Rental, and Nottingham based Charthire join the company’s existing Manchester operation south of the border.
Robert Stewart, commercial director, said: “Both businesses operate in sectors where we have a foothold and are looking to increase our share. The investment in infrastructure and resource in our business within the last few years means the top up of vehicles and trailers, provided by both acquisitions will be managed as efficiently as our existing fleet.”

The current T.O.M. fleet exceeds 6,500, with that number growing to more than 8,000 with the double purchase.

“It is fair to say we have grasped opportunities throughout the recession and whilst not always easy, we are a ‘make it happen business’, so we try and do exactly that.

“There are other opportunities we are looking at just now. Although they are in the early stages, we don’t rule anything out until our instinct and the numbers tell us otherwise” added Stewart.

SAN FRANCISCO — In 2015, Scotland’s Clyde Space Ltd. plans to work with an unnamed U.S. company to establish a joint venture in the United States, a move that would extend the reach of the rapidly growing manufacturer of small satellites and spacecraft systems.
“We are having discussions with another organization about moving into the United States so we can be closer to our U.S. customers,” said Craig Clark, Clyde Space founder and chief executive.

Under the proposed plan, one or more U.S. entities would own a majority of the new firm, which would be staffed by U.S. citizens. That setup would enable the firm to compete for any U.S. government or commercial contracts that are restricted to U.S. companies.

Clyde Space already works with some U.S. government agencies. The firm supplies solar panels and reaction wheels for the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-6, a satellite scheduled to launch in 2016 that is designed to demonstrate advanced propulsion technologies and spacecraft subsystems.

“I’ve always had a good relationship with the Air Force Academy, the Air Force and other U.S. government organizations,” Clark said. “The U.K. and U.S. have a very good relationship with a lot of trade moving in both directions.”

Nevertheless, it makes sense for Clyde Space to establish an affiliate in the United States, according to John Wardlaw, investment director for Coralinn Private Equity of Livingston, Scotland, which owns slightly more than 28 percent of Clyde Space.

“A big part of the global space market is based in and around the United States,” Wardlaw said. “Clyde Space does a lot of business in the United States and with U.S. companies. We are getting to the time when we need to have a more formal presence in the United States.”
The U.S. market for small satellites and subsystems is expanding rapidly. San Francisco-based Planet Labs Inc. has launched 71 cubesats. Spire, also of San Francisco, plans to launch at least 50 cubesats. Google Inc. entered the fray with its June announcement that it purchased Skybox Imaging, a firm based in Mountain View, California, that is launching 120-kilogram satellites to provide high-resolution Earth imagery, and on Nov. 10 Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., tweeted, “SpaceX is still in the early stages of developing advanced micro-satellites operating in large formations.”

The growing popularity of spacecraft constellations is helping Clyde Space because customers are placing large orders and repeat orders, which enables the company to reduce costs.

“We are moving to bulk manufacturing now, producing power systems and batteries in quantities of 100,” Clark said. “I expect that will move to 200, 300 or even 500, which will help us drive our price down but keep the quality at the same level.”

Clyde Space’s business has expanded steadily. In the last five years, demand for the firm’s products has surged an average of 40 percent per year. On Oct. 27, Clyde Space reported record profits of 2 million British pounds ($3.1 million), compared with 1.1 million pounds the previous year. At the same time, the firm announced a contract valued at 1.2 million pounds with LuxSpace of Luxembourg to supply power systems for two European Space Agency satellites and a 940,000-pound contract to build power systems for Spire.

Increasingly, Clyde Space is building entire cubesats in addition to components. UKube-1, launched in July, was the firm’s first complete cubesat and the first satellite designed and built in Scotland. Clyde Space is building another cubesat for the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. “We are effectively acting as prime for that contract, not only designing, integrating and testing, we are doing all the operations as well,” Clark said.

Moving from building cubesat components to complete platforms was a natural progression. “We sell all of our component parts for spacecraft for a price that is affordable for universities as well as other organizations,” Clark said. “Because we assembled the one spacecraft and are already working on the next spacecraft, it means that we know how to integrate our products into a complete system. That allows us to add more value.”

Within five years, Clyde Space plans to produce 1,000 complete cubesats per year. “We want to be the No. 1 company in the world for cubesats,” Clark said. “We will have a production line for cubesats. I think that’s where the market is going.”

Clark expects the cubesat market to expand rapidly as military, commercial and scientific organizations identify a variety of missions that could be accomplished with 100 orbiting cubesats equipped with sensors. “If there are 10 missions each with 100 cubesats, that’s 1,000 right there,” Clark said. “I imagine there will be a lot more than 10 missions. We are at such an early stage in our market.”

Clyde Space is preparing for that market growth by bolstering its staff with continual hiring. The firm also is moving to a larger facility. On Nov. 28, Clyde Space plans to move within Glasgow to a 1,000-square-meter facility, three times the size of its current office. “We’ve run out of desk space,” Clark said. “That is a problem for recruitment because we need more staff and we’ve nowhere to put them.”

Allcord Limited announces that Kieron MacKenzie has now left the Company following his earlier decision to resign from the position of Managing Director in order to pursue other opportunities.

Allcord Chairman Hugh Stewart thanked Kieron for his work in helping grow the Company over the last two years and wishes him well for the future.

Mr Stewart, who purchased Allcord from its previous owners in 2012, confirmed that Allcord will continue to invest in the growth of its suppliers’ brands and to provide its customers with quality products and an exceptional level of service. He also announced a series of changes to the company’s management structure.

John Wardlaw, Investment Director of Allcord’s parent company Coralinn Private Equity and an Allcord board member, will take on the role of Interim Managing Director, working closely with the Allcord team to ensure a smooth transition for suppliers and customers until a replacement for Kieron is appointed.

The existing senior management team of Colin Westland (Industrial Safety Products Manager), Andy Moir (Climbing Hardware Brand Manager) and Barry Simpson (Finance Director) and their colleagues will ensure that it is business as usual for Allcord’s customers and suppliers.

Iain Sked from the Coralinn group will join the Allcord team to become Director of Apparel and Operations. Iain has great experience of both the retail and distribution sides of the outdoor sector.

Allcord is also pleased to announce that Rob Marsden has joined the Allcord sales team. Rob was previously Sales Manager for First Ascent Ltd and comes to Allcord with wide range of experience from across the outdoor industry.