What an honour it was to welcome His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to Corgi HQ last Friday to officially open the new extension to our factory building.

In what was a whirlwind of a morning, HRH The Prince, whose Royal Warrant we carry on all of our socks and knitwear, was given a tour of our new production and distribution facilities and also met with staff and apprentices working in our design, administration and production departments.

Arriving shortly after 10.30 am, Prince Charles was first introduced to local dignitaries and our company Directors Chris and Lisa.

He was then introduced to some of our Administrative staff before being shown through to our Design and Production office to meet our design team.

HRH The Prince was then given a tour of the factory floor, including our machine room and linking, pressing and packing areas. During the tour he met some of the apprentices currently training at Corgi as part of the apprenticeship scheme we are involved in alongside local college Coleg Sir Gâr and training organisation Creative Skillset. The Prince was also shown through into our new factory extension, where he officially opened out new Factory Shop. To end the visit, HRH The Prince of Wales was introduced to Tim Brawn, a representative of Combat Stress who was invited to accept a cheque for £5000 raised through sales of our exclusive Regimental Collection over the past 18 months. The Regimental Collection was produced in close association with HRH The Prince of Wales and includes nine designs, each one depicting the unique stripe and colours of one of the regiments or battalions of which The Prince is Colonel or Colonel-in-Chief. The Collection is endorsed by the UK Ministry of Defence and a proportion of all sales is donated to Combat Stress, the UK’s leading charity for British Veterans suffering from mental ill-health, of which HRH The Prince of Wales is Patron.

Chris and Lisa presented HRH The Prince with a full set of Regimental Collection socks at the Coronation Festival in June 2013.

It truly was a very memorable morning for everyone involved with Corgi and we would like to thank HRH The Prince of Wales for taking the time to come and visit us. Our Director Chris said of the visit:

“We are delighted to welcome HRH The Prince of Wales back to the Corgi factory today. The business has expanded significantly since his last visit so it’s been good to talk him through the exciting developments that have taken place and to introduce him to our growing team of staff and apprentices.

“We would like to extend our warmest thanks to the The Prince and other members of the Royal family for their continued support”.