International Greetings, an Ystrad Mynach based company producing christmas wrapping paper has just fought off competition from the far east to win half a dozen contracts to supply major high street shops.

The company, which is one of Europe’s biggest producers of gift wrap employs over 500 employees and upto 700 over summer months in the run up to Christmas.

With a lot of business being sent to countries outside the UK due to cheaper labour costs this is great news for the local economy and workforce of Ystrad Mynach in Caerphilly. The Christmas cracker arm to the business is based in China but the wages there have more than doubled recently and are expected to do so again in the the next few years. Coupled with increased freight charges International Greetings saw the potential to ramp up production at the Ystrad Mynach site in order to meet the increased orders over Christmas.

This might be a the shape of things to come and lets hope other companies follow suit and decide to invest in local businesses in Wales instead of sending production abroad.