Ceridian opens new £16m facility in West of Scotland
The main UK operational centre of global human resources firm Ceridian was today (Tuesday June 21) officially opened in Braehead by Enterprise Minister Fergus Ewing.
The hi-tech Ceridian offices represent a substantial £16m investment by the company in Scotland. Last year, First Minister Alex Salmond showed Scottish Government support for the venture by announcing an £1.83m funding package from Scottish Enterprise. This was made up of £1.7m in Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) and a Training Plus grant of £134,000. The company’s investment in Scotland has also been assisted by Scottish Development International.
Over 300 staff are currently located at the Braehead facility and the company plans to increase this to around 600 over the next five years.
Ceridian provides a range of HR services to clients including Asda, RBS and Whitbread. Their highly skilled staff work in a variety of areas including HR administration, payroll processing, employee assistance programme support, finance and expense management. The company’s IT development and technical support teams will also be housed at Braehead.
Mr Ewing said: "We are doing all we can to ensure the strongest possible economic recovery and to create and safeguard jobs across Scotland. That’s why it’s extremely pleasing to open the offices of an international company like Ceridian at Braehead.
"The decision to expand the Scottish operation, which is now its largest centre of excellence in the UK, is testament to the quality and skills of the local workforce and the reputation and strength of staff.
"The Scottish Government recently launched its International Trade and Investment Strategy and this sets out how our international trade and investment arm, Scottish Development International, will work with other public and private sector partners to deliver Scotland’s global economic goals and states that we have to continue to attract and support more sustainable inward investment opportunities. Ceridian is an excellent example of how this can be achieved.”
Managing Director of Ceridian in the UK, Doug Sawers said: “Our new UK flagship location near Glasgow is a showcase for our entire payroll and HR outsourced services, which are all now under one roof. This allows our colleagues to work in a more customer-centric way. Previously, our colleagues worked from five, smaller linked sites just a mile away in Hillington.
“We have named the new state-of-the-art building Sonas. In Gaelic, Sonas means good fortune, prosperity, passion, success, enjoyment and happiness, truly embodying what every Ceridian colleague working there believes in.”
Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Development International, Anne MacColl, said: “The opening of Sonas marks a very positive step for Ceridian and is a strong demonstration of the confidence which the management team has in its Scottish operations.
“Ceridian’s ongoing commitment to Scotland shows that the country continues to be an attractive location for international investors, thanks to the skills of our people, a competitive cost base and a well-developed business infrastructure, and we look forward to working with the company as it continues to grow and prosper in Scotland.”