Two of the main players behind former Galston firm VG Energy have started a new company just weeks after it was liquidated.

Christopher Kennedy and Stephen Hamilton have started Ember Energy, based in Fleming Street, Darvel, which also deals in renewable energy.

Mr Kennedy, a former installation technician with VG Energy from July 2012 to December 2016, is registered as director for the new company that was incorporated in December 2016.

And papers from Companies House show how Stephen Hamilton became a person with “significant control” for the company on November 21 this year. That came just weeks after VG Energy folded.

Earlier this year we told you how VG Energy ceased trading after months of “struggling to survive”. And it is believed that this has left dozens of customers out of pocket.

Now registered as liquidated, closure of the Galston-based company was a huge blow to the local employment market with over 100 jobs lost.

Signs that the renewable energy firm was in trouble “had been evident to staff for months,” which included staff telling customers the company’s computer systems were ‘down’ so the accounts team didn’t have to deal with outstanding invoices.

Liquidation came as owners Jim Patterson and Andrew Woodburn tried to secure additional funding to the tune of £10 million with the sale of two turbines owned by the company.

VG Energy was one of the area’s leading suppliers and installers of wind turbines – ranging from 6kW to 2MW in size – biomass boilers and solar power systems.

Boiler systems could cost customers – ranging from farmers to small commercial businesses – up to £1 million at a time, with customers asked to pay deposits to secure the product months in advance of delivery.

But a Standard source claims that money was used to “float other aspects of the business” until the company could afford to buy materials for the systems.

It is now thought a significant number of creditors are chasing the company for money, with some customers “turning up and demanding their money back from the yard”.

“When the company moved to the new premises in Mauchline in July,” our source added, “we were told to tell people our systems were down because of the move.

“That was so our accounts team didn’t have to talk to anyone, then they took on a finance director in October for the first time in a year.”