• PWR moves to new premises in Bellshill

Automated packaging technology firm PWR has moved to new premises in Bellshill as part of significant growth plans.

The firm, which was previously based in smaller premises in Lanarkshire, currently employs 80 staff at its manufacturing facility in the Netherlands, and eight people in Scotland. It is now scaling up its head office function as it seeks to grow sales.

PWR aims to boost headcount at its manufacturing facility by 25% over the next 18 months and recruit a further four employees in Scotland in service, administration and finance roles.

• Loch Duart invests in fish processing facility

Loch Duart, the Sutherland and Uists-based producer of farmed salmon, has purchased its own fish processing facility for the first time in the company’s 21-year history. 

The future aim is to provide the company with greater flexibility and control than ever before.

Loch Duart has acquired the fish processing facility in Dingwall on the Black Isle previously owned by The Edinburgh Salmon Company. The facility was mothballed in 2018 and Loch Duart plans to refurbish the 52,000 square foot facility before opening. The move will result in the creation of up to 40 new jobs initially.

• IMERAI develops new ground-breaking sensor

IMERAI, a tech company based at the Edinburgh Business School Incubator at Heriot Watt University, has developed a ground-breaking sensor which allows A.I. to better understand the world around it.

Harnessing inspiration from the natural world, the device uses echolocation to understand its surroundings and create a visual image without raising privacy concerns. As well as enhancing privacy for domestic users, the sensor will be able to support the implementation of social distancing measures in office buildings and transform the lives of those with assisted living needs.

The firm ahs also attracted sufficient investment to build a full engineering team with the addition of five new roles.

• Cortex rebrands as Forrit and strengthens board of directors

Edinburgh-based start-up Cortex has rebranded as Forrit and has announced a series of high profile appointments to its board of directors.

The firm has welcomed Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of AI & ISV Engagement at Microsoft and a recently appointed non-executive director at HSBC Holdings; Austen Mulinder, a former corporate vice president at Microsoft, former CEO of Ziosk and veteran of multiple start-up and growth company boards, and; Carolyn Jameson, chief legal and policy officer at Trustpilot and former chief legal officer at Skyscanner and head of international M&A at Ctrip.

• Foodmek received a six-figure order for high-spec vessels used to make test kits for coronavirus

Tayport-based Foodmek has received a fix-figure order for high-spec vessels used to make test kits for the coronavirus. The order will see the firm fabricate three 200-litre vessels which will be used to heat up and mix the solution used in the COVID-19 test kits.

The equipment heats up the solution using steam fed into an outer jacket at high pressure.

• ePOS Hybrid creates social distancing solution for hospitality industry

Edinburgh-based tech start-up ePOS Hybrid is offering bar, restaurant and casual dining owners a way of introducing safe, contactless customer interaction to comply with social distancing guidelines.

The new product is a contactless self-ordering system, which will allow customers to process their full orders from their phone without leaving their seats.
The system costs business owners £25 per month and is aimed at reducing customer contact and maintaining better levels of social distancing once businesses reopen.

• Air Control Entech switches to PPE production

Aberdeen-headquartered drone manufacturing business Air Control Entech (ACE) has diversified to create more than 78,000 face visors to help protect local NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Based in the city’s Bridge of Don, Air Control Entech, which designs and manufactures bespoke UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to deliver offshore inspections, has been developing the visors, in addition to its day to day workload, in an effort to support frontline staff at NHS Grampian, as well as local care homes.

The mass production has been supported by The Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) which donated the funds to ACE to purchase an injection moulding machine to increase production to 2000 a day, with the machine running 16 hours a day.