North Wales-based survival bag specialist lands top gong.
Blizzard Survival,
manufacturers of the excellent Blizzard range of
emergency
bags, clothing and shelters, has been presented
with the
Queen’s Award
for Enterprise: Innovation 2009, for its range of ultra
lightweight thermal products, made from the company’s groundbreaking
Reflexcell™ material.
The award was presented to Blizzard Survival inventor and managing
director Derek Ryden by His Honour Judge Gruffydd Huw Morgan
Daniel, Lord Lieutenant of Gwynedd, on Tuesday, July 21, at the
company's factory in Bethesda, North Wales.
Blizzard products have had a worldwide impact with users including the
US, Australian, Finnish, German and Dutch armies, RAF Mountain Rescue,
Swiss Air Ambulance along with outdoor sports people.
The company now exports over 90% of its products and has
doubled its staff and production facilities in Snowdonia every six
months for the last two years. The company now employs 60 people and is
planning to open a new factory in Llanberis, North Wales.
Blizzard MD Derek Ryden comments: “It looks like the two biggest
success stories in Wales at the moment are Torchwood and Blizzard
Survival. We are tremendously proud to have created a world-beating set
of products, which we developed in Snowdonia and continue to
manufactured here.
The Reflexcell technology has a better warmth to weight ratio than down
as well as being wind and waterproof and is actually on on display as a
design classic in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York.
Tests
by the Royal Marines in Arctic Norway have shown
that in sleeping bag form, it keeps users warm up to four times longer
than conventional single skin bivvy bags.
Great to see a British outdoors success story. More information at
www.blizzardsurvival.com
