AN INVERCLYDE businessman is set to breathe new life into a once-empty unit in Greenock town centre through six-figure investment – creating five new jobs in the process.

A property on Jamaica Street which has sat empty since 2018 is being re-opened as a sofa store by David Carroll, who owns the Caledonian Bar in Port Glasgow and Carroll's Furniture in Greenock.

Mr Carroll says he has invested more than £100,000 in buying stock for the new store, which he hopes will help reinvigorate the town centre.

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He told the Telegraph local businesspeople had an important part to play in bringing old premises in Inverclyde back into use.

Greenock Telegraph: David Carroll breathes new life into empty unit in Greenock

He said: “This place was like a yard inside at first, it was concrete floors and the walls needed damp proofed.

“It’s great to be bringing these places back into use.

“If local people aren’t willing to spend money on places like these why should someone from out of town?

“If we’re not willing to do things like this ourselves why should anyone else?

“It’s our responsibility to do things like this too.

“I could probably go to Paisley or Glasgow and open this place and it’d probably cost me the same amount of money because the money is in the stock.

“There might be a bigger market in one of those places, but I think it’s needed down here.

“Now we can move all the sofas from Carrolls Furniture over here and we can have a bigger selection of the stuff we sell there.

“It’s another way of bringing more jobs to the town, between here, the furniture shop, the pub and other things that I do we employ 30 plus people.”

The new shop opened for business yesterday, after the store team worked around the clock to get the building ready for trading.

Mr Carroll hopes his new venture will prove a hit with locals and is pulling out all the stops to wow them from day one.

He added: “We’re doing a deal online where everyone who comes in can get £100 off whatever the price is listed, and they’ll get a free bottle of Moet as well.

“That’ll be handed over upon delivery so they can sit and enjoy it on their sofa.

“My whole motivation is trying to bring more jobs to the town.

“When I grew up there was hardly any opportunity and there’s even less now.

“That’s why you’ve got these places like Man On Inverclyde because it drives people down not having a chance, they’ve got to provide for their families and kids.

“It’s not good for your mental health and that’s why they can end up here.

“Thankfully there are several of these places and they can help those people, but they might not need that support if there was more opportunity in the town.

“I know people go to those places for different things but this is one of the reasons people end up there because they can’t get jobs to support their family.

“I just hope opening new businesses and creating those opportunities will help people out.”