- 7th June 2019
- News
Composites UK Turns 30
On Monday 3rd June, Composites UK celebrated turning 30 years old with an anniversary event at Brandon Hall Hotel, Coventry.
Originally the Composites Processing Association (CPA), it became Composites UK in 2007 to include the whole supply chain within the membership, growing over the last decade from 70 members to 370. The evening saw fifty attendees join the celebration, including founding members Keith Beaumont and Ken Forsdyke, and past Chairman John Ward who have all since retired from the composites industry.Ken Forsdyke, who ran the Association’s secretariat when it was the CPA said of the milestone: “It’s really great to see the organisation going from strength-to-strength. The few of us that met 30 years ago could only dream of such an outcome!”
Composites UK’s current Chairman, Ben Wilson of MPM Limited added: “This was a fantastic event to bring some influential people in the composites world together and celebrate the success of the UK trade association. Like any other business, it starts small and grows and to have the opportunity to thank Ken, Keith and John there as pioneers and honorary members was a fitting tribute. May the celebrations be the start of another very successful 30 years for Composites UK and the sector as a whole.”
Earlier in the day at a small event looking back at the composites industry over the last 30 years, which had presentations from Lucintel, GKN Aerospace, Polynt, Cecence, High Value Manufacturing Catapult, iMet and Scott Bader, saw the Association announce four new Board Directors taking on the term of 2019 – 2021; Jonathan Howard, sales manager of Dura Composites, Matt Bradney, director of business development for Prodrive, Adam Black, business development director at Technical Fibre Products and Francis Arthur, R&D manager for TRB Lightweight Structures. The Board also thanked Prof. Peter Chivers of Innofacture and Dr. Clara Frias of AMRC for their years of valuable expertise. The event introduced the industry to Composites UK’s new employees, Diane Alexander as Membership and Events Officer, and Charlotte White as SME Relationship Manager who both bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience to help grow the Association and its service offering.
Find out more about Composites UK and its work at www.compositesuk.co.uk
