A Belfast company which manufactures an innovative walling system has broken into the market in Britain with a contract for a huge wall nearly half a mile in length.
Colinwell Concrete, a family-owned company which has been in business since 1888, recently partnered with a Warwickshire-based firm to develop a new market in Britain for its Allan Block retaining wall system which is manufactured under licence from its American developer.
Phelim McQuillan, joint managing director of Colinwell, said: “Our distribution partner, SCP Environmental, helped secure the contract for the £750,000 wall which was built as part of a major warehouse project in Chepstow in Monmouthshire.
“It’s our first major exporting success in terms of breaking into the big market in Britain. In fact, this was the largest single segmental block retaining wall ever to have been built in Britain and was a major undertaking for us. We manufactured some 60,000 wall blocks in Belfast for this project and they were shipped out in a total of 75 lorry loads.”
Colinwell employs 20 people at Colinglen Road in Dunmurry manufacturing the Allan Block system and architectural masonry products.
The system was installed by Winvic, the groundwork contractor.
