• ADDRESS:

  Forgewood Holdings Ltd.
  49 Dinmont Crescent,
  Forgewood, Motherwell
  ML1 3TT

• PHONE:

  01698 640226

• EMAIL:

  info@forgewoodholdings.co.uk

OUR BACKGROUND

In 1988, The Forgewood Initiative was set up to provide employment opportunities to local residents to counteract the unemployment effects of the run down and subsequent closure of Ravenscraig Steelworks (once the largest hot strip steel mill in Western Europe); Lanarkshire Steelworks and the partial closure of Dalzell Works in Motherwell. The impact of the resultant redundancies were felt most keenly by residents of the Forgewood ward in Motherwell where a large proportion of the residents worked in the steel industry.

The Forgewood Initiative established two trading companies aimed at carrying out elements of the much needed refurbishment of the Forgewood estate and these covered Security and Landscaping.

In 1990 Forgewood Holdings Ltd was established as a community business to secure the involvement of the residents in the area. It was the last community business to be formed in Scotland and has been judged a success by the measures of employment, training for work and community support.

At its peak, the Group employed over 350 people.

After trading successfully for over 20 years, the recession in 2013 resulted in the loss off a major council contract and a weakening security market. The Board responded by selling the Security and Landscaping businesses with all employees transferring to the new owners.

Forgewood Holdings Ltd now operates as a charity addressing its original objectives which are:

1. To relieve poverty principally among the poor residents of the Forgewood area of Motherwell (including North Forgewood) (‘The Operating Area’).

2. To advance education among the residents of the Operating Area, particularly among young people and the unemployed.

3. To promote and/or provide training in skills of all kinds, particularly such skills as will assist residents of the Operating Area in obtaining paid employment.

4. To promote, establish and operate other schemes of a charitable nature for the benefit of the community within the Operating Area.

5. To promote trade and industry, for the benefit of the general public.