HIGH-TECH FIRM BRINGS JOBS HOPE FOR HARRIS
THE head of an electronics company based near Edinburgh was in Harris yesterday to officially announce the expansion of his high-tech company on to the Island.
The move could mean new jobs for graduates and part-time jobs for students this year as a new type of industry establishes itself on the Island. It has already meant an expansion in homeworking.
Spectral Line Systems Ltd have established a new electronic design, manufacturing and test facility in Tarbert.
Technical director Hugh McPherson said: "This unit will complement our existing unit in West Linton, Peebleshire, where we have been unable to expand owing to strict conservationist policies."
The company was first attracted to Harris after reading the reports of the public inquiry into the proposed superquarry at Lingerbay.
Mr McPherson said: "Looking to the future, we intend over the course of the next year to continue to invest in the Tarbert unit, gradually building up more production and test equipment and carrying out training to increase the amount of work which can be performed there.
"In the longer term, transferring more research and development work to Harris will depend on the success in finding high-quality graduates in electronic engineering or physics who wish to remain in the Western Isles.
"We would certainly be keen to hear from anyone who is graduating in these disciplines this year.
"We would also like to hear from any students or intending students who would be interested in vacation employment this summer in electronics research and development work."
Founded in 1990, Spectral Line Systems specialises in the design and production of microwave and radio-frequency sources for professional markets such as radar, telecommunications and instrumentation.
Products range from standard items such as crystal oscillators priced at around £700 to complex subsystems valued at many tens of thousands of pounds.
Mr McPherson said the company was attracted to the Western Isles by their "excellent educational reputation, availability of suitable effort, a low rate of crime and vandalism, and an enthusiastic reception to incoming industry."
The company's first intentions were to move its whole operations to the Islands to a purpose-built centre but there was a six-month delay in finding a suitable site.
Mr McPherson said that "when a site was found, excessive building costs plus, paradoxically, a great increase in business, made it impossible to proceed with total relocation as planned."
Money for the move was needed for other investment and the disruption of the move would have been too great.
However, he said there were still sound business reasons for developing work in Harris.
"The community were enthusiastic, suitable people had been identified, good quality leased accommodation was available" and there was a six-year secondary school.
In addition, "the local development company, Harris Development Ltd, were patient and exceedingly helpful throughout our deliberations.."
Spectral Line Systems decided to transfer most of its manufacturing work to Tarbert, leaving basic research and development, sales and final testing in West Linton at present.
He pointed out that much of the work involved can be done at home. They are already providing draughting and mechanical design work for one person who works from home in Northton, while another living near Tarbert works on electronic assembly within the unit on Scott Road.
Mr McPherson said: "We are very pleased with the quality of effort obtained so far, the degree of training required to reach the point of useful and efficient work output being much less than anticipated."
Mr Donald John Morrison, the development officer for HDL, said the development company was confident that similar contacts with companies based on the mainland could lead to further employment opportunities in the field of industrial, technological and small manufacturing industries.
"After the recent lay-offs by local business it is most heartening to hear that the company will recruit people from the local workforce with the likelihood that additional staff will be taken on in the next few months."
Original article Stornoway Gazette Feb 10 1997.
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