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Construction company CCG: why investing in your business and people is key for productivity

Glasgow-based CCG celebrated 50 years of trading in 2024. In that time, it’s grown from a humble plumbing and heating business to a full-service construction and manufacturing group. Find out what’s helped the company survive the tough times and scale in the good ones. 

8 January 2025 | 6 minute read

Based in Cambuslang, The CCG Group is now one of Scotland’s largest privately-owned construction and manufacturing companies. Across its eight subsidiary companies, it employs more than 700 staff in Scotland.

While it began in plumbing, it now offers holistic construction and manufacturing services. With divisions covering closed panel timber systems, windows and doors, flooring, utilities, and more, CCG builds approximately 1000 new homes per year, mostly in the affordable housing sector.

A huge amount has changed and challenged businesses in the last 50 years. CCG has not only survived these but has managed to build and scale its business as well.

CCG’s approach: “we never stand still”

Managing Director David Wylie has been with CCG for more than 25 years, half the company’s lifespan. In a recent interview with us, he commented on the businesses’ growth journey:

“We started 50 years ago turning over £1 million a year. Now, we turn £250 million a year.”

He puts the companys’ success down to continual investment in its operations and people. It’s a ‘never stand still’ approach that demonstrates just how ambitious CCG is.

“We’re always looking for opportunities,” David says, “and we continually ask: can we do this better? How do we do it better? Do we need to invest to do it better?”

Spending hard-earned capital can feel daunting for businesses, but CCG have learned that in order to grow, businesses need to invest inwards.

Targeting investment for productivity

A perfect example of this is the company’s recent purchase of state-of-the-art production line equipment which allows CCG to fabricate a range of PVCu windows and doors, and composite door sets.

We awarded the company a Mini Capex grant of £200,000 towards the £6 million project. Not only has the project created 67 jobs, it’s also drastically increased the range and number of PVCu products the company can produce. This now sits at 11,500 annually, which will support new build construction projects, and the planned maintenance of homes across the country.

The investment has enabled CCG to reduce manual handling and drive efficiencies to create a streamlined production process, strengthening its ability to deliver high-quality, innovative solutions for its wide range of new and existing clients.

Investing capital in this kind of targeted way has been a key factor in CCG’s growth and serves as a prime example of how companies can invest for productivity. 

Investing in people

Your businesses’ facilities are only part of the story, though. The people that run and work in them can be the difference between stagnancy and growth.

This is why CCG invests as much in its people as any machinery, premises, or products. But what does investing in people mean practically? For CCG it’s about enabling, empowering, and encouraging.

CCG enables its staff to do their jobs through the provision of the right facilities and training. It empowers them to explore different areas of the business, to develop their skills, and to lead in their role. It encourages by providing opportunities for people’s growth, consistently affirming that its staff are its priority, and building an environment that people want to work in.

It's these core principles that mean many of the staff at CCG have been there for years. This kind of longevity is something CCG continues to strive for. It recognises that if you believe and invest in your people, they’ll believe and invest (their time and effort) in your business.

David reflected that, even in tough times, CCG has done its utmost to provide job security for its people. He said that “we always want keep our staff, because we recognise that the best asset we have is the people that work for us.”

CCG aren’t just focused on their current employees, though. They’re making room for the next generation of staff, too.

In 2024, the company welcomed 10 new trade apprentices, bringing the total of apprentices employed across The CCG Group to 48. Another example of CCG’s commitment to skills development, both for new and existing staff.

These newest recruits will undertake a four-year industry-recognised programme to become qualified in one of several trades including plumbing, joinery, and heating engineering. 

Implementing automation 

Automation in manufacturing can be a divisive subject. This is often due to the idea that it can displace human jobs. While automating processes or employing robots can indeed take certain roles from humans, it can also prevent humans from having to do jobs that can be potentially harmful.

If a business is committed to upskilling its people, as CCG are, then investing in automation can actually create jobs. This is particularly true if the use of automation is allowing a company to produce more, and at a faster pace, so it can expand into new markets. Just like CCG’s new production line equipment has done.

For CCG, automation is a big part of its business. It’s always been a company that looks to use upcoming technologies, particularly those that can improve the quality of its products.

The company has built a reputation for quality, which keeps clients coming back to it. From David's perspective, while there’s always a need for some manual handling, the more CCG can do through automation, the better safeguarded the quality of its products.  

“The better the quality of the products, the better the chance of reaching the market. And when your clients know they can expect quality from you, that’s how you get repeat business. Repeat business gives us the ability to grow.”

And with growth comes the need for more people, meaning CCG can continue safeguarding and creating new jobs.

Fifty years and future-ready 

Both the company and the market it works in have undergone a huge amount of change over the last fifty years. There are cost and environmental considerations now that didn’t exist when CCG first expanded from plumbing and heating.

Luckily, the company is committed to innovation, especially when it comes to building homes that are both cost effective and better for the environment.

In 2024, CCG completed pioneering research into ‘whole-life carbon’. This offered crucial insights into the carbon emissions throughout the housebuilding lifecycle. It also provided recommendations and strategies for reducing them to help achieve net zero.

This will be a key aspect of CCG’s future growth plans, which David is feeling optimistic about.

“While the private and affordable housing markets are fairly quiet just now, people will always need homes, and we’re ready to provide them.”

We’re looking forward to continuing to support CCG as it keeps innovating, investing, and growing. Here’s to another fifty years.

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