Esh Construction is to reduce its activities in Scotland as part of an efficiency drive which has resulted in 17 redundancies north of the Border.

The company has told our sister publication Scottish Construction Now that a “comprehensive strategic review” of its operations in Scotland will see a “restructuring of activities” carried out by its Livingston and Galashiels offices.

The review has led to 17 people leaving the company, which employs approximately 450 people across all of its offices.

Esh said it remains “fully committed” to its projects in Scotland and has offered support to colleagues affected by the changes.

Esh Construction’s regional director for Scotland, Gerard McMahon, said: “Esh Construction’s Board has recently initiated a comprehensive strategic review of its operations in Scotland. An early outcome from this review is a restructuring of some of the activities carried out by our Livingston and Galashiels offices. Regrettably this has led to some redundancies as we seek to streamline our processes and drive efficiencies.

“We remain fully committed to our projects and are currently looking to leverage the considerable range of resources available at our central HQ to ensure we deliver projects in line with our client’s expectations.

“We are offering support to those colleagues affected by these changes, we thank them for their contribution to the Esh Group and wish them the very best for the future.”

Esh first put its stamp on the Scottish market in April 2014 with the acquisition of Border Construction. A clutch of new business wins followed and led to the opening of a new base in Livingston a year later.

Esh Border Construction, as the division was initially known, had offices in Carlisle, Kendal and Earlston, but the Livingston and Galashiels bases cemented its commitment north of the Border.

Scottish contracts at the time included a £1.4 million deal with Gullane Golf Course to renovate it in time for the 2015 Scottish Open; £6.4m of contracts on two social housing programmes in Hawick and a £2.7m contract for three projects at NHS Lothian.

In May last year Esh announced a raft of new framework partnerships within Scotland’s social housing sector, signing up with Link Group, Kingdom Housing Association, Hillcrest Housing Association, Places for People, LAR Housing Trust, Thenue Housing Association and City of Edinburgh Housing Assessment Management Framework.

The collective value of this work could mean over £100 million throughout the frameworks’ duration across the next few years, the firm revealed.

Since the creation of the Scottish operations, the team expanded with the appointment of several key roles as it looked for further growth in Scotland.

In September 2017, Paul Devine was named construction director while Paul Curran was appointed commercial manager.

They joined a burgeoning senior team that had already been boosted by the internal appointment of regional director for Scotland, Gerard McMahon.

By then Esh had secured high-profile projects such as Stirling’s Engine Shed and Edinburgh’s Calton Hill observatory.