Dumfries based Murray Farmcare have plans to move to a larger premise and create new local jobs – thanks to the support of a £150k grant from South of Scotland Enterprise.
Murray Farmcare (MFC) is a Registered Veterinary Pharmacy which offers a range of essential medicines for domestic pets, pigeons and other birds and offers valuable nutritional advice.
They also supply and advise on a wide selection of leading products for cattle, sheep, poultry and other farm animals. In addition to the range of essential medicines, MFC offers ancillary equipment such as workwear, PPE and hygiene products.
During the pandemic, the business faced several challenges, but overall, they managed to continue to trade safely by implementing stringent health and safety & social distancing measures for its staff and for external people visiting its sites.
Murray Farmcare have outgrown their current site and are looking to move to a new, bigger facility to expand and diversify their service. But with associated costs extremely high, they approached SOSE for a grant to help them achieve this.
SOSE recently approved a £150k grant to help them with the costs to re-locate, but also to help them create new jobs in the local area.
Andrew Cairns, Managing Director of Murray Farm Care said:
“I would like to thank SOSE for the significant £150k grant they have provided us to enable us to re-locate, but also to create and retain valuable jobs.
“We currently have 42 full -time staff, and thanks to the support of SOSE, we are hoping to create 9 more jobs, and safeguard some of our current roles which is fantastic news.
“The coronavirus pandemic presented us with a number of difficulties. One challenge was that much of our normal face to face business had to be done via telephone and email.
“However, on a positive side, we were classed ‘essential’ as a supplier of veterinary medicines and a key supplier of animal health products and farm inputs into the agricultural sector, and this really helped us stay afloat. We have also seen a significant increase in demand for our janitorial hygiene and PPE products, and our turnover attributed to these products increased significantly between April – July 2020.
Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair of South of Scotland Enterprise said:
“We are the economic development agency for the South of Scotland and our immediate focus is to continue to support our businesses, communities, and individuals to recover from the wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic.
“Murray Farmcare is exactly one of these businesses we are here to support, here in the South. I am pleased that the grant will be used to create job opportunities for local people at a crucial time for our economy – and these jobs will make an invaluable contribution to rebuilding our communities and businesses as we continue our recovery.
“The new facility that they are re- locating to will provide more options and opportunities for attracting and training young people in the area and provide a foundation for talent development in the agricultural/veterinary sector.
“I wish Murray Farmcare every success in the coming months ahead, and I thank them for their continued contribution to the community.”
