Our performance

Since the global economic crisis began to unfold, we have played an integral part in delivering the Scottish Government’s Economic Recovery Plan.

We developed tailored action plans for each of our 2,000 account managed companies and more than 7,000 companies benefited from campaigns such as 'Now’s the Time to Ask' and Strengthen Your Business'.

Together, these companies employ around 250,000 people and are the most likely to help the Scottish economy turn the corner.

We also accelerated investment in major infrastructure projects such as the SECC National Arena, Fife Energy Park and Edinburgh BioQuarter to help Scotland’s key sectors grow faster and support Scotland’s long term competitiveness.

Supporting job creation

  • Through our work 40,000 additional jobs have been created in the last decade
  • Our activities this year could create 4,000 jobs over the next three years
  • Opportunities in offshore wind are expected to generate a further 28,000 by 2020.

Recent successes include: Amazon 1,850 jobs; Barclays 600 jobs; Bi-Fab 400 jobs; Mitsubishi 200 jobs.

Accelerating economic recovery

We continue to adapt our activities in response to changing market conditions while also identifying new opportunities that builds on the existing competitive advantage to accelerate economic recovery.

Between April and December 2010, Scottish Enterprise:

  • Supported over 800 companies to improve their efficiency through programmes such as the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) and lean management programme.  .
  • Helped a further 800 companies to improve their leadership and culture, equipping them with the skills needed to respond to changing economic conditions and identify new opportunities for their business.
  • Provided assistance, through Scottish Development International, to over 550 companies to trade overseas to increase revenue and develop their business, including support for companies such as Harvieston Breweries to target the US market, Nova Biotics to explore new business in Europe and Sea Energy to seek new contracts in Asia.
  • Invested £12.5 million in more than 130 R&D and SMART projects with Scottish based companies to develop new products or services. This helped to generate a further £43 million investment by companies such as Agenor Technology in the Borders and Fife-based Aircraft Medical. 
  • Offered £30 million of Regional Selective Assistance to 92 overseas and Scottish companies, planning to create or safeguard 4,000 jobs as a result of the support.  This included over 700 jobs by Hewlett Packard and a further 360 jobs by Financial Services firm Vertex.

We have also continued to capitalise on the competitive advantage of our key sectors. This included establishing a £70 million National Renewable Infrastructure Fund to build on Scotland’s potential in offshore wind as well as investing a further £12 million in a new bio-incubator facility at Edinburgh BioQuarter.

Focusing on the future

Looking ahead, Scottish Enterprise is working with companies across Scotland and its industry partners to identify the biggest opportunities for economic growth for Scotland.

This will mean a greater focus on the companies with the biggest growth potential and, therefore, most likely to create new jobs for Scotland and support economic recovery.

Our priorities will be to work with these companies to increase exports, improve innovation and secure new investment – three areas that will have the biggest impact on Scotland’s economic performance.

We will also be focused on making the most of Scotland’s potential in renewable energy. It will continue to invest in Scotland’s infrastructure through the National Renewables Infrastructure Fund and developments at Internaitonal Technology Renewable Energy Zone and Fife Energy park while building a supply chain of local companies who are ready and able to respond to new opportunities as they emerge.

Read the Scottish Economic Recovery Plan: Update 2011