This time last year Bovema took £45,000 worth of orders but began 2008 with an order book totalling more than £400,000.
Bovema, a specialist in the design, manufacture and installation of ventilation and smoke control systems has gained more than £1.1m worth of business.

The Cardiff-based business's success comes on the back of a 200% increase in sales in the last 12 months. Three of its biggest orders have seen the firm's smoke and natural ventilation systems installed in the Jaguar car factory in Coventry, the Gap UK distribution centre at Northampton and the McArthur Glen designer outlet village in Scotland.

With a Dutch parent company trading in Europe for 25 years,
the firm opened its first UK office in Chester 23 years ago, under the name VCS Ltd. It moved its UK headquarters to Cardiff in the beginning of 2007.

'The business has been operating in the UK for 10 years, but the last two years has seen a period of rapid growth,' said Bovema UK managing director David Fitzpatrick.

'In the last 12 months we created £1.1m worth of business - a record set of figures.

'Most large commercial buildings and residential apartment blocks have some form of smoke ventilation system which is hardly surprising when you consider that the biggest killer in any serious fire is not the fire itself but the smoke it produces'.

Bovema have raised its game in more ways than one in recent months by sponsoring Cardiff-based UWIC Archers, who are playing their first season in Division One of the National Women’s Basketball League.

Bovema also provides the basketball team with two of its players -shooting guard Sarah Wagstaffe and 6ft 3ins Latvian international forward Ilze Zekite. Both girls worked in the firm's accounts department of its UK headquarters.