Susan Smith visits Scotland’s Bravest – which is turning a profit while turning round veterans' lives

Just over a year ago, Michelle Ferguson (above, far left) sat in a cold and dirty office in a disused factory on the grounds of Erskine Hospital and wondered what she’d done.

The building looked like it was falling to bits around her, and despite having no manufacturing or military experience, she had been tasked with the job of turning it into a major new social enterprise factory providing jobs for 150 veterans over the course of two years.

“That was a moment of real madness,” she says. “I really did think I had been naïve to take it on.”

But a year later, following lots of hard work and a dramatic learning curve, Michelle has shown that third sector business skills are transferrable between industries.

Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, which is supported by the Royal British Legion Industries and Erskine, is fast becoming one of the country’s most exciting social enterprises. In under a year it has picked up contracts to make signs for Network Rail, Highland road network managers Bear, Amey UK and a range of public sector clients through Scotland Excel. It’s working on a research and development project with the University of Strathclyde, and it’s even managing the print and fulfilment of Third Force News.

The old Erskine factory, which had been empty for five years, was a shell a year ago but today its bright, clean interior is equipped with high-spec machinery. There is a spacious main floor, a print room and a back room ready to be turned into a learning and development suite thanks to a recent £150,000 Big Lottery Fund grant, and a lovely staff canteen with views across the countryside.

As a result the company is able to offer a range of services including signs, print and mailing, fulfilment, bespoke engineering, and circular economy projects – the repair and recycle of technical equipment.

“We brought people here when it was an empty factory, the ceiling was falling down, and we put some big screens up and we talked about where we wanted to be in a year, and now we’re here,” says Michelle triumphantly. “Everybody stood here and thought it looked ambitious, but here we are. We’ve done it, but it’s been a team effort.”

That team includes the first veteran to be employed by Scotland’s Bravest, Andy Baird (pictured above right). Andy applied for a back office admin job before the factory was up and running. It wasn’t a job that was earmarked for a veteran, but to Michelle, there was no question he was right for the job.

Andy’s journey from the military to Scotland’s Bravest is a well-worn tale of 15 years service in the Queen’s regiment and the Royal Navy submarine service before undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) forced him out of the military in 1994.

After taking on a few jobs outside the military, Andy’s PTSD worsened and one day he just couldn’t cope anymore. It all came tumbling down and he lost his job, home and family.

It wasn’t until he came across charity Combat Stress in 2015 that Andy’s PTSD was finally diagnosed and he started on the road to recovery with the help of a range of voluntary organisations.

“I never knew there was support until 2015,” he says. “Since that day I have been extremely well supported. I got housing through Scotland’s Veterans Residences. Combat Stress assisted me to help me understand why I acted the way I did and gave me coping strategies to help me from falling into the same path of despair. Regular Forces Employment Agency and Walking with the Wounded also helped me get back into work. Also the Coming Home Centre in Govan allowed me to volunteer which assisted me to understand that I could get back to work.”

When he went to interview for Scotland’s Bravest, Michelle was immediately impressed with his attitude and approach and believes offering him the job was a hugely important stage of the company’s development.

“He’s not just been an administrator, he’s helped us make decisions about how the organisation is going to support the veterans,” she says.

“Many veterans, when they go into a new job, wonder where they will fit in. A lot of veterans are quite obviously military, so there are a lot of jokes and they are often the butt of jokes like “Here comes sergeant major”. Things like that can make it really tough. So, the things that Andy has told us and other veterans told us, helped us model the environment here. So, although there’s still a bit of camaraderie and jokes, they’re ones you’d find in any factory.”

Andy agrees that one of the benefits of Scotland’s Bravest is that it’s a transition between military life and a civilian job.

“You’re working in a completely supportive environment,” he says. “As much as it is good to work with fellow veterans, it is also beneficial to work with civilians who are passionate ab out getting veterans back into work. It is also going from the feeling of worthlessness to having a sense of purpose. It has been a turning point for me.”

The organisation has an ambition to offer jobs, apprenticeships or placements to 150 veterans within two years and to have a £2 million turnover within five years. After the success of the first year, Michelle is feeling confident.

In January Robert Lappin joined the company from Combat Stress as veteran welfare and development manager. Not only is he a veteran himself, he has extensive experience in supporting veterans and developing a peer mentoring programme. He will play a pivotal role in ensuring veterans, who get 18 months contracts, are able to move on to jobs in other companies.

Scotland’s Bravest has been modelled on the Royal British Legion Industries which runs a factory in Kent with a £5m a year turnover. However, right from the start, the aim was to do something different in Scotland. In Kent, veterans are given permanent jobs, but Michelle was clear that the aim of Scotland’s Bravest was to help as many veterans as possible develop hard and soft skills to cope in the outside world.

There’s an open recruitment process for jobs, the company will accept referrals from other charities and employment bodies but not every veteran will get a job. To qualify, they have to have been unemployed for a period of time, and after that the right attitude rather than specific physical capabilities is key.

Another early recruit was triple amputee Gary Jamieson. He has become the factory’s water-jet cutter expert, but rather than adapting the machine to suit his needs, he has worked with operations manager Andy Russell to adapt the process.

Michelle explains: “Everyone who works in the factory at the moment bar the operations manager has some sort of disability. What we wanted to prove is that no matter what their disability, the guys can work in a really good, fast-paced manufacturing facility.

“What we didn’t want to do was look at how we adapt. Lots of the manufacturers were asking what adaptations they’d need if they took on someone who was a triple amputee. We’ve said that we’ll work with the people here and we’ll adapt the processe s to make that work.

"We are using an electrically adapted fork-lift truck to help with lifting or an electric pallet lifter – but these are things that would exist within a good manufacturing environment anyway.”

Right from the start, Michelle has been engaging with firms such as BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Strathclyde University’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) to see what skills they need the veterans to develop to move onto mainstream jobs.

And with a budget of just £150,000 for equipment, Michelle managed to fill the factory with £500,000 worth of machinery.

This is in part due to the generosity of companies who are so impressed with the idea of Scotland’s Bravest, they have donated.

The connection with AFRC is already proving beneficial.

It is a globally-recognised centre of excellence in innovative manufacturing technologies, research and development. Its work ties in closely with Scotland’s Bravest’s circular economy projects, and the two are working on a partnership to try to find a solution to road sign waste.

Currently road signs, which have an aluminium base and are covered with an adhesive reflective plastic coating, are not recyclable.

“Nobody else is looking at remanufacturing road signs at the moment,” explains Michelle. “There are millions and millions spent on signs every year and they are all going into landfill."

At the end of last year, there were six veterans already in employment on the factory, two more were appointed in January and another two are due to be take on soon.

Before Christmas the staff visited AFRC to see what the organisation does there in the hope of building their confidence about the prospect of moving on to mainstream employment.

Michelle has been really pleased with the response so far from local businesses but says the veterans will be looking to move into work with responsible employers, who recognise that for many of these men their disabilities are for life.

After four years heading up St Andrews First Aid Training & Supplies Ltd, which was twice shortlisted for social enterprise of the year, Michelle took a leap of faith in becoming the first director of Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company. It’s clearly been worth it.

"It has been hectic, exciting, stressful and the best year I’ve ever had – apart from the years I had my children – it’s just been the most amazing journey,” she says.

How has she done it? From knowing nothing about manufacturing a year ago, Michelle now drops materials, machinery and process references like an old-timer.

She explains: “I’ve done a lot of homework, but it all comes down to the fact that we keep the values and the mission at the heart of what we do.

“Understanding that a social enterprise is about profit for purpose – there’s no better sell.”