A Welcome Royal Visit
Over the years, Denroy has welcomed many visitors to their state-of-the-art injection-moulding factory, including politicians, TV personalities, the Secretary of State and even the former Prime Minister, but royalty is certainly a first!
On Wednesday 7th October 2020, Kevin McNamee, Group CEO of the Denroy Group and Dr John Rainey MBE, Chairman of the Denroy Group were delighted to welcome The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward to the Denroy factory in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.
Denroy is one of the world’s leading innovators of high-tech, critical components for the aerospace, medical and defence industries, and has been successfully running a state-of-the-art manufacturing operation with over 180 local employees for almost 50 years. However, you might know Denroy better as suppliers to their sister company, Denman, makers of the world’s most iconic hairbrushes.
Still a family business today, the Denroy Group continues to support the local economy by manufacturing components that are used in fighter jets, passenger planes, forklift trucks and over 100 different other applications.
During the Covid pandemic, Denroy supported the Hero Shield charity to manufacture the Hero Shield face visor and ultimately took over full production, supplying over one million visors to the NHS. To comply with Covid restrictions this meant that the factory premises needed to be expanded to facilitate socially distanced workstations and employ additional staff for the length of the contract.
During the royal visit, Kevin was delighted to show Prince Edward the production of the new DenPro bubl barrier face mask to Prince Edward and explain how it makes face coverings more empathetic.
Kevin explained to Prince Edward that the bubl mask was born out of a time of uncertainty for Denroy due to the devastating effect the current pandemic has had on the aerospace industry. As a team of innovators and solution focused creators, manufacturing the bubl has been able to harness the passion of its team and secure all jobs within the business.
Far from being a normal working day at the Denroy factory, the staff were overwhelmed with excitement to welcome a member of the Royal family to their place of work. The visit from Prince Edward has thoroughly boosted staff morale and will certainly be a day to remember!