An Online Community Newsletter published by the Pencoed Town Council
Today Pencoed is largely residential and is practically a commuter town for Cardiff, Swansea, the Valleys and Bridgend. The only industry within the boundaries of the town are a factory manufacturing welded aluminium tubes and one a small furniture manufacturer (both based on the site of the old foundry on Heol y Geifer).
Present Industries
Past Industries
In the 1980's, Sony UK built a huge television factory on the eastern boundary of the town on farmland belonging to the Pencoed Agricultural College. This factory employs a couple of thousand people, many of them from the town itself. This site was designed to be only the first stage of the expansion of Sony and it is hoped that in future years many other subsidiary industries will be attracted to the site.
To the north of the town, at Wern Tarw, the Danish company Rockwool built a factory on the site of the abandoned Coalite Plant. This works produces insulation material from molten rock. This material is used all over the UK and Europe for insulating houses, offices and factories. The works employ a few hundred people mamy of whom live in the locality.
The latest addition to the industrial base in Pencoed is a modern call centre which will eventually employ up to a thousand people. This service industry unit is owned by the Lloyds TSB banking company and is situated next to the giant Sony plant adjacent to junction 35 of the M4 Motorway.
South of the town at Coychurch and Waterton are two large industrial estates whose varied industries employ many local people. The biggest employer is the Ford Engine Plant, which employs several thousand people. The are also industrial estates at Kenfig Hill, Litchard, Tondu and Bryncethin to the west of the town and at Ponyclun and Talbot Green to the east of the town.