YOU may not have heard of it, but this Warrington firm played a key part in the construction of the Millennium Dome.

Polycarbonate glazing and canopy manufacturer Twinfix, which is based at Birchwood Park, recently celebrated its 30th birthday.

It is now an award-winning company with a myriad of prestigious projects to its name, but it remains a family business.

Founder Graham Kench set up the firm back in 1990 in Surrey.

Warrington Guardian:

Beginning his career at General Electric Plastics, a role in which he travelled the UK and Europe informing clients about the virtues of the company’s polycarbonate sheets, he quickly identified a gap in the market.

Initially focussing on the domestic market, the manufacturer relocated to Cheshire and has since grown from having four employees to its workforce of 45 today.

The business focussed on producing high quality products for schools, aviation and healthcare sectors, while Graham’s passion for rail led him to develop solutions for this sector.

It was in 2000 that Twinfix ‘exploded onto the market’, and became known as the ‘pioneers of polycarbonate’.

This year saw the unveiling of its work on the Millennium Dome, now the O2 Arena – which involved the construction of a 10m-high wall stretching 1000m around the structure.

The company then moved into its current home, offering more space for storage, manufacturing, and development.

Graham died in 2013, but his daughters Sarah Kench and Vicky Evans now run the business as joint managing directors.

Warrington Guardian:

The Kench family around the time Twinfix was first established

And the foundations he built have given Twinfix a ‘strong platform for the current team to drive things forward for the next 30 years and beyond’.

Vicky said: “I am proud of how the company has evolved.

“It’s a family business at heart, and even though we have grown in the last 30 years it still has that family feel.

“It’s in the DNA of what we do and how we operate, and that is part of the legacy my dad left.

“Twinfix is in its 31st year and continues to thrive.

“I hope that my dad would be extremely proud of where the business is today and where it’s heading.

“We have grown from four people at the beginning to a current team of 45 people.”