Welsh Finance Minister pays visit to the Boardroom – Queensferry
Welsh Government Finance Minister Jane Hutt was in North Wales today and on her itinerary was a visit to Queensferry’s Boardroom Climbing Centre.
The Boardroom for those who don’t know is a world-class, state-of-the-art indoor facility that features an international competition standard Bouldering Wall, a Speed Climbing Wall, Roped Climbing, Children’s Climbing Wall and Europe’s first “Psico Bloc” wall – where people can climb to 8m without ropes.
The climbing centre has been created in a 1388 sq metre unit on the Rectors Lane Industrial Estate Pentre, Queensferry and provides over 1000sq metres of artificial climbing surface.
The Boardroom is the creation of Lee Browning and Dave Thomas, after many years of working in the activities industry they were both keen to set up their own climbing venue.
Lee and Dave received support to turn their ideas into reality through the Welsh Government’s EU-funded Business Wales – New Start-Ups scheme.
The scheme provided support with their business plan and ideas and helped them attract investment from HSBC and the Wales Economic Growth Fund enabling the venue to open its doors to the public in October 2013, creating 19 new jobs in the process.
Welsh Government Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, said:
‘The Boardroom Climbing Wall is an excellent example of how EU funds are adding value to Welsh Government initiatives to help create a positive climate that stimulates investments for business growth.
‘Billions of pounds of EU funds are also helping businesses through access to finance, ICT, research and innovation opportunities, and increasing skills, in turn raising productivity and ensuring that Wales is fully equipped for the challenges of global competition.’
Lee Browning, co-founder of the Boardroom Climbing Wall, said
‘The start-up phase of any business is always difficult and the support we received throughout this was invaluable. These schemes are helping businesses in Wales to succeed.’
The new £40 million Entrepreneurship Support scheme is the successor to the Business Wales – New Start-Ups scheme which helped thousands of businesses and created thousands of jobs across Wales.
Building on this success, over the next five years the new scheme will support the creation of 10,000 new businesses and 17,000 new (gross) jobs across Wales.
images: theboardroomclimbing.com
