Dr Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, and Baroness Jenny Randerson, Under Secretary of State for Wales, visited Concrete Canvas Ltd on 27 August. The visit included a tour of the factory in addition to the company’s award winning shelters – 'a building in a bag that requires only water and air for construction'. Whilst there, Dr Cable and Baroness Jenny Randerson also met Concrete Canvas’ staff, including directors Will Crawford and Peter Brewin, both of whom were given silver medals by the Royal Academy of Engineering this year.
In July, Concrete Canvas won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. It is the first Welsh company to be recognised by the prize. Concrete Canvas® is a Geosynthetic Cementitious Composite Mat (GCCM). The product is a flexible concrete impregnated fabric, which hardens to form a thin, durable waterproof and fire-resistant concrete layer on hydration. As Concrete Canvas describes it: ‘Essentially, it’s concrete on a roll’.
“I was very impressed by what I saw at Concrete Canvas; the business is an excellent example of the innovation and success that Wales is home to. The government’s industrial strategy is giving businesses like Concrete Canvas the confidence to invest over the long-term, creating the type of high skilled jobs this country needs to thrive in the future. This will help create a stronger and fairer economy in Wales and the rest of the UK,” said Dr Cable, who was in South Wales to announce that Wales would be the host of an international investment conference.
Adapted from press release by Louise Fordham