Creative Industries Provide Brave New Weld For AV Coatings
AV coatings is moving its focus from the world of open cast to the world of open casting as it targets the UK’s growing creative sector. With its traditional heavy industry markets declining, one small Neath Port Talbot firm has focused its attention on the creative world of film and television, with big name productions such as BBC’s Dr Who, ITV’s Beowulf and the newly released The Angry Birds Movie on its résumé.
AV Coatings at Cwmgors which once specialised in welding repairs in the active opencast and quarry operations across West Wales is now making its mark in this brave new world of complex technology using fast set spray applied polymer.
Company director Ian Rigden said: “After being very busy in opencast, quarrying and the steel industry over many years we saw our customer base declining as these heavy industries contracted.
“We had too many eggs in one basket and we saw our workforce diminishing as work dried up. It was at this point we realised we had to look for a new direction within the company.
“There was one sector we were especially interested in exploring. After much research we were introduced to using polymers to coat some of our other traditional work to extend its life and we began to realise there could be other uses in this area.”
Mr Rigden said whilst still working as welders they began to look more closely at this new field, initially as protective coatings and waterproofing. “We required specialised equipment and after considerable thought we invested in several plural component reactors” he explained.
Their first major enquiry was creating a cave for the at the time upcoming Dracula Untold movie produced by Warner Brothers. “This was our first opportunity to really put our investment to use” he added.
He said they were able to show potential customers that they could respond to an enquiry very quickly but more importantly they could finish projects in a much shorter period than using the traditional plaster and fibreglass methods.
The company is now building a new customer base in a wide range of areas from; film and TV, marine, retail, commercial flooring and roofing.
As many of the business’ projects increasingly require their staff to travel all over the UK, they purchased a 7.5T truck fully integrated with all of their coating equipment with an on board 60KVA generator.
Mr Rigden tells us that 2016 has been a monumental year for AV Coatings, particularly when the firm was asked to help create props for the red carpet premiere of Disney’s BFG in Leicester Square: a giant dream catcher, giant footprints and a snozzcumber.
“All of the BFG props appeared with the actors and director Steven Spielberg at the premiere in Leicester Square on July 17th this year. This was a really exciting project for us, especially knowing that they were created for such a high profile event”, he explained.
“This year our team also helped produce a mobile ice cave for Coors Light beer as part of their ice cave rave (#IceCaveRave) promotion, which is currently touring the UK as part of the firm’s ‘Damme Cold’ marketing campaign featuring Jean Claude Van Damme.
“We’ve also seen increasing demand for music festival props and stages. This summer we were approached by a new customer representing world-famous Dance Festival, TomorrowLand, to urgently mobilize all our spray equipment within 24 hours to go on site for a 10 day project.
“Originally, none of us estimated the size or significance of this job as we soon found out the stage we were working on was being shipped to Belgium for the biggest dance festival in the world.
“We also worked with Leeds-based show design studio NEWSUBSTANCE to help with the finish on their iconic 6.5m replica Download Dog for 2016, the mascot for the popular annual rock festival, Download, in Donnington Park.”
The future looks promising for AV Coatings, with a number of high-profile projects in the pipeline, including designing and producing a mountain façade for a new log flume ride with a giant 7m x 5m Viking helmet for one of the UK’s leading theme parks.
“We will be spraying the façade and helmet in foam and polyurea and helping to design the steel structure to support it. This is a large project for us, taking around 3 months from start to finish.”
Mr Rigden said they are now training up two teams of applicators; one to work locally and workshop based, and another which would work solely on projects based further afield.
They have now outgrown their current workshop and are now building a 15,000 sq. ft. studio to generate and fulfil more business.
“The area we feel we can expand into further is the creative design industry especially in Wales as the film studios are pressing for more and more of the big film companies to produce in the area”.
Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council, Cllr Ali Thomas OBE said: “AV Coatings has demonstrated how adaptable firms and employees are in our area.
“We have a developing creative arts industry with a number of firms producing amazing work for both cinema and television.
“I look forward to seeing this industry continuing to develop in the next few years and firms like AV Coatings can make a huge contribution. It is very exciting,” he added.
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