On Thursday 3rd October 2024 DYW Ayrshire welcomed over 100 guests to the Lochside House Hotel for an inspiring afternoon and a first of its kind event.

 

Our “Audience With” is an exclusive event that brought together an audience of businesses who are committed to shaping and supporting the next wave of leadership. Featuring a diverse line up of guest speakers who have walked the path of success, each leader shared stories from their journey—both the highs and the challenges they faced along the way.

 

The event, forming part of the Ayrshire Business Week programme, welcomed apprentices, employers, employees and pupils of the senior phase to follow the inspiring journeys.

 

Featuring a panel of local entrepreneurs and leaders, Angela Cox (Ayrshire College), Derek Pierce (J&D Pierce), Linda Johnstone (Auchrannie Resort) and Billy Bowie (Billy Bowie Ltd) shared their journeys including the successes and the struggles. Each leader highlighted the importance of following your dreams to feel happy and successful.

 

Guests enjoyed a delicious lunch and dessert between the speeches before ending the day with a Q&A. Joining the Q&A panel, Billy Bowie also recapped his success story.

 

Empowering young people provides not only inspiration, but builds resilience, confidence and gives guidance to our leaders of the future. Through stories told at this event, we continue to encourage employers to engage with our local young people and encourage them to dream bigger, work harder, and believe in their potential.

 

If you missed the event, you can read more about our fantastic panel below:

 

• Angela Cox – Ayrshire College

Angela Cox is the Principal & Chief Executive of Ayrshire College with nearly 30 years of experience in the further and higher education sector in Scotland and England.

Angela grew up in Cumbernauld and went to the local high school before attending college in Glasgow to study an HND in Beauty Therapy Sciences.

Angela started her career in the Leisure & Tourism Sector, working in and managing spas. She spent two years in America working on Cruise Ships before coming back to England and started her teacher training while still working in industry full time.

Angela started her teaching career in Bournemouth & Poole College and left after fifteen years having progressed to being a member of the executive team.

She then moved to take up the Post of Deputy Principal – Quality & Transformation at The City of Liverpool College and came back to Scotland to take up post of Principal of Borders College and two years ago moved again to become the Principal of Ayrshire College.

During this time, Angela has achieved a BA Hons Degree in Post Compulsory Education from Southampton University, Post Graduate Leadership Certificate from the University of Warwick and an MBA from the Open University.

Angela is committed to creating a thriving and progressive economy by providing life changing opportunities through education and equipping people with the skills and knowledge that enables a more inclusive and fairer society.

In her current and previous roles, Angela has led a number of large and small scale innovation projects which have enabled the transformation of the organisations she has led and worked with including employers and communities.

In previous roles, Angela has been instrumental in developing and leading economic and growth deal projects in skills and innovation.

Currently Angela sits on the Ayrshire Regional Economy Strategic Board and is a board member of Interface, a board member of the College Development Network and Kilmarnock Town Centre Regeneration Board.

 

• Billy Bowie – Billy Bowie Special Projects Ltd

1991          How it all began

Beginning with just one truck, Billy Bowie Special Projects was born!

1992          New skip hire business

Just one year into business and we were already adding to our services, with a full range of skips for hire throughout Ayrshire and the West Coast.

1997          Sponsorship of Kilmarnock FC

Billy has always had a soft spot for Kilmarnock Football Club and decided to start giving back to his club and community by sponsoring Kilmarnock FC and Kilmarnock Rugby Football Club.

2000          New home

At the turn of the Millennium, we moved to Moorfield Ind Est. With outstanding motorway links to the whole of the UK, we have called it home ever since. To go along with our big move, we achieved our ISO 9001:2015 accreditation.

2003          New Recycling Centre opened in Kilmarnock

Billy Bowie is dedicated to a cleaner environment and our waste Transfer Station opened with the goal of benefitting the whole community, whilst allowing us to process low hazard waste in an environmentally friendly manner.

2003          New depot in Widnes

Billy Bowie Tankers expanded our number of depots to cover even more of the UK. This depot in Widnes gave us even better access to The North of England.

2007          New depot opened in Sheffield

Just four years after opening our Widnes depot, we added another in Sheffield. This gave us the ability to cover the whole of the Northeast of England from two bases in North and South Yorkshire.

2008          Moved to new building at Moorfield Ind Est.

After eight years of continuous growth at Moorfield, we decided we needed a bit more space, so moved into a larger building!

2009          New accreditations

Another important step as we achieved our accreditation for ISO14000:2015.

2013          Billy joins the Board

A momentous year for Billy as he joined the board of his beloved Killie! After many years of sponsoring the club, this opportunity was one he couldn’t turn down. 2013 also saw us sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant, ensuring that those who serve or who have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly.

2016         0-100

Having started with just one, Billy Bowie Special Projects now had around 100 state-of-the-art vehicles, thanks to continuous investment. We also received the Silver Award for the Armed Forces Covenant in 2016.

2017         Recognised by the Chamber

2017 saw Billy Bowie Special Projects presented with the Young Person’s Award from the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce. This wasn’t the only award in 2017 though, as we also lifted Transport news’ Scotland’s top fleet livery award!

2018         A better environment for our staff

In 2018 we were delighted to be able to extend BBSP HQ to accommodate more people and provide better facilities for drivers, labourers and staff. We believe in doing what’s right for the people we work with, and our new facilities were a great way to demonstrate this.

2019         Business Insider Award

In 2019 we were thrilled to win the prestigious Business Insider Top SME Award. This award gave us recognition for all of the hard work we’ve put in over the years and helped to show how much progress we had made. None of which would be possible without our incredible staff and loyal customers.

2020         Debt free

A momentous moment as we were able to pay back all of our debt. This was done while still being able to invest in our fleet with state-of-the-art equipment and new employees. We also took this opportunity to purchase land at Struthers Farm.

2021          30 years in business

Where does the time go? As a Birthday present to ourselves, we purchased two sites at Rowallan and land at Holmquarry Road in Kilmarnock in order to accommodate the expanding business. We also extended our partnership with Kilmarnock Football Club to include the naming rights for the BBSP Stadium: Rugby Park. Once again we received the Silver Award for the Armed Forces Covenant.

2022         New training centre

Collaborating with a new partner, we began to develop  a training centre at Rowallan. Along with this, we sponsored Irvine Cap debt centre to help fund a Community Links Coordinator for 12 months. Our community sponsorship also extended to  Kilmarnock Cricket Club where our sponsorship assisted in a new youth coach being recruited.

2023         Future plans

Preparations are under way to start building on the land at Struthers Farm (subject to planning permission) to create a new state of the art training ground for Kilmarnock FC these facilities will be made available for the local community to use.

 

• Derek Pierce – J & D Pierce

Derek left school in 1982 and started working with his father as an apprentice fabricator/welder, his father had started the business in 1975 making gates, railings and doing general blacksmith work working from a small workshop attached to the house, for the next 4 years Derek and his father worked as a 2 man business on small fabrication and blacksmiths work both in the workshop and on site. In 1986 they started their first employee an apprentice fabricator, during the next few years the business grew to around 10 employees and in 1994 with a turnover of just under £300,000 they moved into a 6000 Sq foot factory in the old Glengarnock steelwork complex. With only Derek’s father and two admin personnel working within the office, it was decided that Derek would come off the tools and into the office and concentrate on growing the estimating opportunities.

The next few years Derek spent managing the estimating, procurement, production and on-site contracts, so like any small business fighting to expand it was long hrs hard work and juggling cash flow, however by 2007 we had grown the business to 140 Employees and doing around £18M turnover, the factory had also grown to around 100,000 square feet. During the financial crash in 2008 and the following few years the business turnover dropped to around £10M, however during this period we modernised the factory and invested in preparation for the inevitable upturn which eventually came during 2012 where turnover had recovered to around £15M.  Derek’s Father retired in early 2013 and from then Derek took the business forward growing the Facility in Glengarnock to 330,000Sq feet and investing in technology making the Glengarnock facility the most modern automated fabrication facility in Europe, we also opened offices in Scarborough, Bradford and Durham and in 2021 we bought a 300,000Sq foot fabrication facility in East Kilbride, this allowed us to expand our heavy fabrication and bridge and infrastructure divisions, today we fabricate over 1000 Tonnes of structural Steelwork each week and work nationally throughout the UK, we have become the third largest Structural Steelwork contractor in the UK with around 525 employees and over £160M turnover.

 

• Linda Johnstone – Auchrannie Resort

Linda Johnston was brought up in Irvine, North Ayrshire, and moved to Arran in 1983 to teach Physical Education.  In 1988, she co-founded Auchrannie (at the time a 16-bedroom guest house) with a vision to build a business that could support a swimming pool and indoor leisure facilities for the island.

Thirty-six years later, Auchrannie has grown beyond all expectations to become Arran’s largest private employer, and a multi-award-winning, iconic resort.  Auchrannie has a capacity of 510 guests and comprises 2 hotels with 85 x 4 star bedrooms, 30 x 5 star self-catering lodges, 14 x self-catering Retreats, 3 x restaurants / bars, 2 x leisure clubs, children’s Playbarn, ASPA destination spa, and the Arran Adventure Company.

Linda was the driving force behind the decision to transition Auchrannie to Employee Ownership.  Auchrannie was the first hotel in Scotland to become employee-owned in 2017 and also one of the earliest hospitality adopters of Real Living Wage in 2018.  The resort is committed to all aspects of Fair Work and is a values-driven organisation focused on community benefit.

Linda is also involved in a number of non-profit making organisations on a voluntary basis. She was a founding Director of VisitArran in 2012 and is currently a Director of Arran Development Trust (Vice Chair), and Co-Chair of Scotland’s Fair Work Hospitality Inquiry.