Firm battling back after massive blaze destroys factory
A company which lost its entire factory in a massive blaze has opened a temporary home just three months after it lost almost all its stock.
Stagecraft Display, which is based in Llaithddu near Newtown, lost a factory full of complete or almost complete orders during the blaze in March.
But it has reopened for business with a temporary factory on the Vastre Industrial Estate in Newtown.
The company makes display stands for shops and garden centres from timber and is one of the biggest companies in its field.
Tom Davies, managing director, said he was delighted that business was back up and running and paid tribute to his 25-strong workforce which has kept production running at various sites over the last three months.
He said: "It is fantastic to be up and running again. I have to thank our staff for their valiant efforts and our customers, who showed great understanding. But we have weathered the storm and are very much back on track. Now we have to focus on two major orders from Dobbies Garden Centre in Shrewsbury.
"At the time of the fire we were working on a display for a new community shop near Machynlleth called Cletwr Community Shop. All the fixtures had been completed and were ready to go out when the fire hit and they were destroyed.
"But within days we had managed to get our hands on some of our display equipment which was housed in another building and get it ready for them to open their shop back in March."
Mr Davies said since the blaze the team has worked hard to complete outstanding orders using equipment loaned from other local busineses and the company has now managed to complete the backlog of work destroyed in the fire.
He said: "The work we have completed since the fire included an important order from supermarket group Waitrose and we are now thrilled to be open at the Vastre Industrial Estate in Newtown.
"While the fire destroyed all work-in-progress and machinery, vitally design drawings, orders and customer databases were saved daily to an off-site backup.
"Fortunately the pre-Easter production workload had largely been completed and dispatched prior to the fire. With the help of local suppliers we were very quickly able to recommence limited production within days of the disaster."
When the blaze broke out at about 6am on March 20, firefighters from towns and villages across the area raced to tackle it, spending 19 hours at the scene before the flames were finally extinguished.
