Business Park Glasgow

In recent months Jamie Cumming was appointed by MEPC as Commercial Director of Hillington Park, and responsible for the MEPC team delivering the new plans here over the coming years.

Based on feedback from occupiers and experience across the UK, MEPC is working on plans to invest in projects across Hillington Park.

We asked Jamie about MEPC’s plans and vision for the future of the Park.

You’ve been at Hillington Park for a few months now; what has been the most striking thing you have seen since you arrived?

I would have to say the sheer scale of the Park and the diversity of our occupier community. There is a buzz of activity throughout the working day, companies are busy designing, developing, manufacturing, selling and delivering: it’s a key commercial centre. I have also been very impressed with the knowledge and commitment of our customer team who collectively have over 50 years of experience managing Hillington Park. Their tireless work has been one of the biggest positives I’ve encountered so far.

Everyone who works at Hillington Park knows that it is a big place with lots going on but can you give us an idea of just how big it actually is?

There are 6,500 people employed on the Park in 350 different organisations, representing a range of sectors including food and drink, manufacturing, renewables, technology and construction. We are Scotland’s largest business park at over 400 acres in size with a total of 3m sq ft of lettable floor space, so I can safely say we are big! In fact, if you placed Hillington Park on top of Glasgow City centre it would be the same footprint, so that gives you an idea of our size.

Project Hillington sounds very exciting, what will it mean for those companies already based here?
Our main objective is to create a modern business park environment which companies based here can benefit from, a place where they want to grow their business and where employees enjoy working. Ensuring this environment is in place will not only benefit the businesses already on the Park, but those who are looking to join us. Project Hillington will consider improvements to the services and amenities, upgrade to the landscaping, signage, as well as making continued improvements to the Park’s customer care.

And what about companies who aren’t here yet? What things will appeal to them?

We hope that everything we are implementing through Project Hillington will appeal to businesses that are looking for a new location. We have an impressive range of business accommodation for all types of organisations, and we manage that space with a dedicated site team who are very experienced in what they do. Companies base themselves at Hillington Park because of the range of property options and its location. We are two minutes from the M8, we are serviced by two railway stations and are two miles from Glasgow International Airport, so our location and transport links are clear selling points.

We also strive and, are successful in, building relationships with our occupiers so that we understand their business needs and react as their businesses grow and develop. We have several examples of companies that started out on the Park in one small office and after considerable growth now occupy several suites.

We are also working hard to deliver the next phase of new business space at the Park and we have the land and resource to build bespoke units for almost any type of organisation.

It’s 75 years since Hillington ‘opened for business’ and in that time the Park has become one of the most recognised and successful business locations in Scotland.

What do you think the next 75 years hold for Hillington Park?

Hillington Park has enjoyed a very successful past and has made a major contribution to the economy of not only Renfrewshire and Glasgow, but the whole of Scotland, over the past 75 years. A contribution that we are all very proud of.

Many of the people who work at this Park will have friends and family who worked at companies such as Rolls Royce and Remington and although these companies have moved away, the Park has continued to expand and prosper.

The fundamentals of Hillington Park, such as the transport links, location and density of the skilled workforce, will mean there will always be a demand for business space here. How we do business is changing fast, and we need to ensure we continue to provide the space and services that companies need. Employees also demand more from their working environment than they used to, and we want to make sure we create an attractive Park that people will enjoy coming to every day.