Decade of manufacturing celebrated

Edgetech welcomed VIPs from throughout the industry to a celebration marking a decade of UK manufacturing.

The company’s Coventry factory became the first warm edge manufacturing facility in the country back in 2007. Ten years on, dignitaries including Bill Griffiths and George Wilson from parent company Quanex and John Blundell, Deputy Lord Mayor of Coventry, marked the anniversary by officially opening a 1.3 million dollar extension to the same site.

“We were absolutely delighted to welcome so many colleagues, customers, members of the media and others to our HQ to celebrate such a major milestone and unveil our new facilities,” Chris Alderson, Edgetech’s managing director, saod. “This event has given us a fantastic opportunity to reflect on everything we’ve accomplished over the last decade, and to say thank you to our customers, many of whom have been with us since day one.

“It also gave us the chance to share our vision for the next decade and beyond – and demonstrate both our strong relationship with Quanex, and our unwavering commitment to product research and development.”

The Quanex Chairman’s Safety Award was presented to works manager John Stark to recognise Edgetech UK’s impeccable safety record, while head of marketing Charlotte Davies received a £1,000 donation from the company towards her efforts for Paddle2Pedal, the all-female event from GM Fundraising that will see 12 fenestration professionals canoe, abseil and cycle hundreds of miles in August to raise money for the Hope House Children’s Hospice.

Attendees made generous charity donations also totaling £1,000 sterling and a further £500 in dollars and euros, which brings Charlotte’s fundraising total so far to over £4,000.

The event culminated with a medieval banquet and Edgetech’s annual golf event the following day.  

A message from Charlotte Davies:

This weekend was the last training weekend for the Paddle2Pedal GM Fundraising team before we begin the main event in just two weeks’ time.

We went to see Hope House Childrens Hospice, which the event is in support of, on Friday and had the privilege of meeting some of the children who rely on the facility and the amazing team who work there.

The charity requires £6,000,000 each year to stay open, and the government funds just £1,000,000 of that – leaving the rest to be raised every year by events like this and personal supporters.

After the emotional but inspiring morning we then did a really tough 12-mile cycle that included some serious climbs – 1,000ft in total – and a beautiful rest stop in Ironbridge. Under the bridge one session, over it the next!  

Saturday we covered 20.1 miles on the canoe (our furthest yet!) in the same time it took us to cover 12 miles two training sessions ago – showing just how far our team has come in such a short space of time, and how much work everyone is putting in.

We got both soggy and sunburnt – I guess that’s Britain for you.

On Sunday we were then off on the road for 8am again and this time covered 51 miles on the bikes – a few scrapes and bruises but again the distance and stamina showed how far the team had come on our longest team ride yet. I took a tumble this time due to not stopping fast enough and thought I’d really injured myself when I found the next chunk torturous – until I realised that my brake had been stuck on for the last five miles! Fortunately, with that fixed the last 20 miles were manageable.

Thanks so much again to everyone that’s already sponsored me, it really does give the challenge a completely different perspective and motivation knowing so many people are behind us.

For anyone that would like to support this amazing charity and our efforts we are so close now to our fundraising target and all donations are very much appreciated. With just two weeks to go I’m feeling the pressure to hit my personal target too. Donations can be made through my Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/daviesp2p

If you’d like to stay updated during the event (20-26 August) the best way is to like the GM Fundraising Facebook account or follow them on Twitter.

Hopefully next time you hear from me it will be to report a very successful and safe event finished. Then I’m going to lie on a beach for a week!