Business minister Vince Cable to visit Burnley business
12:30pm Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News
By Kate Jackson, Reporter
TOUR Minister Vince Cable
BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable is set to visit one of Burnley’s biggest and most successful employers.
The Lib Dem Cabinet Minister is due to meet workers and be shown around VEKA off Rossendale Road, on Saturday.
He will be joined on his second visit to the town in 12 months by Burnley MP Gor-don Birtwistle, who said Mr Cable would also attend his regular Saturday surgery, meeting constituents in the town centre.
Mr Birtwistle said: “Vince Cable was very keen to visit the town. VEKA are the UK’s largest manufacturer of PVC-U profile and have recently taken on 200 more people. He will be visiting the factory, before heading to the Weavers' Triangle to see the inv-estment that has been put in, before having a private lunch with business leaders.
“It is a great privilege to have him visit.”
The Business Secretary is said to be a strong supporter of plans for an aerospace park on the former Michelin site in Burnley, creating up to 2,000 jobs. Last July he was shown around the Heasand-ford site by the Burnley MP, who believes the land could become a national leader in the sectors. The MP also took Mr Cable on a tour of BCW Engineering, based at the nearby Lancashire Digital Technology Centre, which supplies automotive parts to Aston Martin and Jaguar, and is supporting the RGF bid.
VEKA, which won the Lancashire Telegraph Deal of the Year award last year, has safeg- uarded jobs in Burnley, and created 100 new positions, thanks to the acquisition of Bowater Building Products, in the West Midlands, in June 2011.
The combined business, with a workforce of more than 500 staff and a turnover of about £80million, is one of the largest window systems companies in the UK.
Work is ongoing to constr-uct a multi-million pound mixing plant, to stand alongside a state-of-the-art £10m warehouse complex, under the stewardship of supply chain director Shane Gray, who made the move north follow-ing the Bowater takeover, and former aerospace boss Graham Fitton, as finance director.
Jack Herer says...
8:34pm Tue 12 Feb 13
Seriously the Lib Dems do take some knocking but the fact remains they seem to just try and do the best they can. Not for their mates who own newspapers, or their super rich chums who want to pay less tax, or their comrades in the union who want higher pay for unsackable public sector fat cats, including themselves. All with little regard for the common man who foots the bill. Well the Lib Dems, naive as they are to how badly you get hammered in the press for it, do look out for the common man.
I've got to comment on this story with a good effort to VEKA too, showing the region doesn't have to be a public sector net drain. A proper success story to be proud of. Quite remarkably well done in the financial climate.