Chair of HIE visits Orkney

On Tuesday and Wednesday (22-23 February), Chair of HIE, Alistair Dodds paid a visit to Orkney.

The journey to Orkney was part of several planned visits by HIE’s Chair and Chief Executive to businesses and community groups across the Highlands and Islands, which have been supported by the organisation.

Alistair was in Stromness on Tuesday with members of the local HIE team, where he visited the Pier Arts Centre, had a tour of Orkney Research and Innovation Campus (ORIC), and met with tenant organisations Heriot Watt University, Aquatera, and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), before returning to Kirkwall to visit Orkney Distilling Ltd (ODL).

ODL was supported by HIE last year through its Young Company Capital Investment Grant to assist with the design, creation and introduction of new bottles and the purchase of a bottling line at the distillery in Kirkwall.

With the change of circumstances caused by the pandemic, ODL, which employs a team of nine people, has worked hard over the last few months to take the new bottle range of Kirkjuvagr gins to fruition.

The company is enthusiastic for achieving low carbon impacts and has worked with EMEC to investigate the potential for using green hydrogen as a clean fuel solution for decarbonising in the distilling sector.

Also as part of his visit, Alistair spoke with Council Leader James Stockan and senior OIC officials; and visited Orbital Marine Power’s Hatston HQ and Sheila Fleet Jewellery’s workshops and Kirk Gallery in Tankerness. 

HIE Chief Executive, Stuart Black was due to visit the island but unfortunately he had to self-isolate, although he still managed to ‘virtually’ to hear about HIE-supported projects including the energy-related work of Aquatera, and EMEC’s latest marine energy and green hydrogen developments.