Dundee businessman Graeme Carling set to meet staff after buying McGill

The new owner of McGill has expressed his relief at bringing nine months of negotiations to a close after he purchased the building contractor.

Graeme Carling, from Broughty Ferry, who runs Catalus Energy Investments, insists he was interested in the struggling firm before it plunged into administration earlier this year.

He said: “There is a long story behind this. We have had an interest in McGill and made an approach about nine months ago.

“We were looking at the platform company to complement our residential property business in our growth plans and McGill was a business that ticked a lot of the boxes as far as we were concerned.

“We kept an eye on the company over the last few months and of course things started to develop early in January and we found ourselves looking at a business that was in a distressed state.

“We are delighted to have got this over the line. It has been hard work to get to this position.

“McGill is a business that we have used in the past for various works.”

Mr Carling said the next step for him and his team will be to meet former customers of McGill in a bid to work out the best way forward for the company.

He said that after the process is complete, work can began on a plan to move forward.

He added: “Meeting former customers is the next stage of the process for us over the next couple of weeks.

“Thereafter we will be able to disclose further in terms of our plans for the business.”

But Mr Carling said there were no guarantees for McGill’s former workers following the purchase

He added: “There are no workers – the administrators made everyone redundant in February.

“First things first, we need to see what business is there, then we will clearly have to scale back up to carry out those contracts.”