Reflecting this week on the ambitious expansion plans of one of Scotland’s largest structural steel fabricators brought back memories of meeting its managing director about seven years ago now.

Chatting to Derek Pierce that day, it quickly became clear that he headed one of those businesses you come across surprisingly often which seems more disposed to hiding its light under a bushel than shouting from the rooftops and the scale of which therefore surprises.

Many people outwith its sector would, back then, probably not have heard much, if anything, of J&D Pierce.

And, even though Mr Pierce won Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2018, he and the business he heads still seem relatively understated.

The story of this business is an inspiring one.

As J&D Pierce notes, it was started in 1975 by Derek Pierce’s father, Jim, who “found himself out of work and started with a week’s dole money from a small workshop attached to the family home, supplying gates and railings to local houses”.

Derek Pierce left school in 1982 and started working with his father while completing his apprenticeship as a fabricator welder. In 1986, they took on their first employee, Alex Rose, who is still with the business and runs the Skills Development Academy and all in-house training and development.

In the late 1980s, the business won a contract to supply a metalwork package as part of a major regeneration project for local authority housing.

And, over the decades, it has gone from strength to strength.

J&D Pierce’s main production facility at Glengarnock in Ayrshire, at the former Glengarnock Steelworks site, now employs more than 200 staff.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of such employment to Glengarnock and the surrounding areas.

J&D........

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