Four former Anglesey Aluminium workers start their own business

THE closure of Anglesey Aluminium last autumn was a massive blow to the island but four local men were determined not to let their experience and skill go to waste.

Now, after five months of planning, preparation and training they have launched a new company which is already attracting attention from across the island and beyond.

M?n Maintenance Services has been set up in a unit on the Penrhos Business Park, Holyhead, offering engineering and electrical maintenance services to businesses and private individuals.

The four partners in the business are mechanical craftsmen Andrew Samuel, Stephen Evans and Andrew Williams, and electrician Wayne Allman, who all worked on the same shift at the aluminium plant.

Anglesey Aluminium, one of North Wales’s largest employers, closed in September but the shutdown had been threatened for some time, and so the 390-strong workforce had been considering their future beforehand.

When the axe finally fell many of the skilled craftsmen went on the dole while others decided to move to places such as India and Oman, but the quartet resolved to stay in the area.

“We are all local lads with young families and it’s a nice place to live so we agreed to set up our own company,” said Mr Evans, 38, from Holyhead. “There is work around here, but it always seemed to be people from outside who were coming in on the contracts.”

The quartet says help from Flexible Support for Business, the free business advisory service funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, was vital in getting the new company off the ground.

They also received help from Menter M?n, Anglesey County Council and ReAct, the government scheme to help businesses taking on redundant workers.

The four men invested some of their redundancy money to launch the company and used the ReAct programme to gain new skills and help with the wage costs in the first year of operation.

Mr Samuel said: “With potential development within the nuclear and renewable energy sectors on the island, we are keen to develop a good working relationship with these industries.”

He said the firm had also identified other potential clients – for example caravan parks and campsites on Anglesey, most with pumping stations and site electrics which require periodic, preventative maintenance and testing.

He added that Flexible Support for Business advisors had guided the four through some potentially tricky aspects of setting up a new business, saying “They are one of the main reasons that we are starting from such a solid base.”

Ffion Jones, environmental management advisor for Flexible Support for Business, praised the four directors of Mon Maintenance Services for their professional approach when setting up the business.