Like many, Eddie Black had big plans for 2020. With a 10-year multi-million pound contract due to come into play, a new £5 million headquarters for his Eco Group of companies sits 80 per cent complete in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway.

It was to have been finished this summer, but, as with most construction projects, that remains on hold.

Similarly, the coronavirus pandemic has forced him to put most of his 50 employees on furlough. They work across the group’s various businesses, which range from an established industrial cleaning operation to newer divisions providing training, workspace and communications solutions.

Such hardship could easily become overwhelming, but as a former deep-sea fisherman, Mr Black is accustomed to dealing with adversity. After shaking off the initial shock, he assembled his remaining team of eight active staff and started brainstorming.

“We needed to approach this like no one was bailing us out, so I said let’s open up dialogues that will make us relevant in this time,” he says.

“There is always opportunity, even in the worst times, and there is always opportunity to help as well.”

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From the beginning of April, Eco started supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) that has made its way to hundreds of care homes throughout the UK. More than one million items were delivered in April, including 525,000 surgical masks, 500,000 disposable aprons and 10,000 litres of sanitiser.

Currently run through the main Eco-Genics cleaning business, this operation is due to become another division within what on the surface appears a rather eclectic group of companies whose combined revenues were in the region of £4m before the pandemic. All have grown out of Mr Black’s drive as a “problem solver” who tackles situations head-on.

Born in Dumfries, he left Annan Academy at the age of 15. As he describes it, “I didn’t apply myself academically”, which limited him to “certain avenues in life”.
“Obviously at that point I needed to find some money, and fishing was a place where I knew a couple of people who were making some decent money, so that is what I decided to do,” he says.

In total he spent nearly 20 years at sea, having decided early on the wheelhouse was where he wanted to be. He earned his skipper’s ticket at the relatively early age of 24, having qualified in sea survival, advanced firefighting, first aid and electronic communications at Banff and Buchan Nautical College.

Working with small crews of no more than 10 people for up to three months straight taught him the importance of assembling good teams, as “one bad apple would have a massive effect”. What he learned during that time continues to shape his thinking today.

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“I look at my business as I did the fishing boat,” he says. “I don’t dance around a problem, and I don’t worry if I am going to upset anyone, because there is no time for that.

“Fixing a problem at sea is always harder – the weather is unfavourable and you are probably facing a life-threatening situation. It was a very hard job, but 
I learned a lot about life.”

He became a leading scallop skipper and spent his final five years as a troubleshooter for Scott Trawlers, the UK’s largest scallop fishing fleet. With vessels equipped with “frozen at sea” capabilities, each was effectively a floating factory. Mr Black’s job was to boost their efficiency.

Performance-based bonuses built up into substantial savings, but though the money was good, spending extended time away from his wife and four children was proving increasingly difficult.

To prepare for his permanent return to shore, the couple spent £160,000 on a commercial cleaning franchise that would be their business going forward. 
But after serious run-ins with the franchisors, they walked away after less than a year, surrendering the whole of their investment.

“One of the things we learned during that period is it is very hard on the operators, particularly when you’re cleaning things like grease from the ducts in industrial kitchens,” Mr Black says. “I went to look for a process that would take a lot of that manual labour out of it, and I came across a process called dry ice cleaning.”

This is like a sand blaster, but uses CO2 compressed into a solid form. Because this converts back to 
a gas when it hits the surface being cleaned, there is no secondary waste left behind.
Mr Black spent his remaining £50,000 of savings on the assets of a business called Dry Ice Solutions, and in 2010 Eco-Genics was born.

One of its first clients was the DuPont Teijin Films plant in Dumfries, which remains a customer today. With DuPont’s testimonial, the doors to other major plants, such as Pirelli, Sellafield and United Biscuits, opened.

Having successfully grown Eco-Genics out of the financial crisis, Mr Black now has similar plans for the new medical division.

“That was another risk we took, but it had to be done,” he says. “Ultimately you have got to take responsibility and get on with things yourself.”