Moray businessman Srinivas Badam said yesterday he had nearly doubled turnover at his retailing venture, MS Corp, after investing nearly £500,000 in a Buckie-based post office network and a convenience store in Macduff.
The latest additions to his small but growing business empire put him a big step nearer to achieving his dream of building a company turning over at least £5million annually by the end of this year.
His splurge on the main post office at Buckie, along with 10 “satellite ”outreach” offices, and a Costcutter store in Macduff was helped by a £660,000 commercial mortgage from Barclays.
Mr Badam said he paid £260,000 for the post offices and £220,000 for the convenience store, adding to his existing Spar businesses in Fraserburgh and Portknockie.
It is just over six years since he set up MS Corp, with redundancy from his previous management role at Leicester firm Magnetic North Software having prompted a move to the north-east in his search for a business start-up opportunity elsewhere in the UK.
Now living in Portknockie, the Robert Gordon University information technology graduate and married father-of-two is confident he can achieve his turnover target.
“I’m about halfway there so now have just 50% to go,” he said, adding he was already on the hunt for further potential acquisitions in the area.
He also said he felt “blessed” to be living and working in Moray after spells in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and India.
MS Corp employs about 35 people in a part of Scotland that has had more than its fair share of job losses in recent years.
Jamie Grant, head of business and corporate banking at Barclays, Scotland, said: “Delivering funding to Scotland’s SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) market continues to be a key focus for us and we have a team of experienced relationship directors on the ground.
“Businesses like MS Corp play an important role in their local communities and this funding will support the next stage of development for the company.”
