An entrepreneur from a collapsed company has turned his fortunes around with the help of a £50,000 start-up loan.

David Clark is a former employee of W J Harte Construction, which folded in January this year due to the construction downturn.

700 jobs were lost with the 40-year-old Scottish civil engineering company.

But Mr Clark was determined to maintain its skills.

With financial help from UK Steel Enterprise (UKSE) he set up Phoenix Specialist Solutions in Airdrie, offering lighting, signage and road marking services.

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The move created 27 jobs for Mr Clark's highly-skilled former colleagues.

Phoenix's most recent high-profile contract involves providing all the road lighting on the Glasgow East End Regeneration Route. Connecting the new section of M74 at Polmadie Road with the M8 at Provan, this new route has been designed with Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games in mind.

With UKSE funding, the firm has purchased equipment including a cherry picker and a van-mounted crane, as well as creating a number of new jobs using Routes to Work, an organisation for unemployed people of North Lanarkshire.

Mr Clark said: "When Harte closed down, it was a really difficult time for all of the staff as we weren’t sure what to do next. Starting up Phoenix has helped a lot of the team remain employed in jobs they were already doing. We're also working with clients we’ve known for years so we’ve kept those relationships going. The support we’ve received from UKSE has played a major role in our immediate success."

(NE)