Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, has visited Safetyflex Barriers, to see the counter-terrorist Truckstopper bollards and barriers made by the Coventry-based firm. The manufacturer reports deals in Australia, Sweden, Germany, and Australia in the last 12 months, which now accounts for 35 per cent of its trade. Safetyflex products protect sites such as the Augusta National Golf Course in the United States, East Police Station in Melbourne, and UK sites including the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, and Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, among the sites due to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Andy Street, pictured left, said: “Sadly vehicle attacks are becoming more common, which has made property owners, planners and Governments put security, safety, and protecting people at the top of their priorities when dealing with buildings and sites. What Safetyflex has done is applied traditional engineering expertise to devise a very modern product which is proving highly successful. The company has now developed a range of new products that allow controlled public and vehicle access to sites while maintaining security, and these are in use both in the West Midlands and across the world.
“It is an outstanding example of Midlands engineering which has, over decades, provided ground-breaking solutions to global problems and continues to do just that through traditional and new technologies.”
Safetyflex adds that it has been supported by the Department of International Trade at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce in its export drive but is also keen to grow trade close to home. Director Rob Gerrard, pictured right, said the region’s track record in staging large events has opened more potential business. He said: “With UK City of Culture 2021 and the Commonwealth Games 2022 both coming to the region, as well as large annual city events such as the Birmingham German Market and Motofest in Coventry gaining in size, there is a real need for the products we manufacture and we are growing our UK market as well as looking further afield. We are really grateful that the Mayor came to learn about what we do and the way we have developed Truckstopper and our other products. He was certainly very engaged with what we do and that was good to see.”
