A Welsh manufacturing firm based in the heart of the South Wales valleys has praised the role of Capital Law in taking it from a small scale manufacturing start-up to global success.

The law firm facilitated a multi-million pound investment deal between the Torfaen-based Super Rod and US tools giant Klein Tools. Capital Law has acted as legal advisors to Super Rod for the past 15 years, since the firm’s inception.

Super Rod produces innovative cable rods used in the electrical industry. The pioneering rods minimise the disruption caused by laying cables and increases safety due to a reduction in ladder work. The rods are calculated to save the electrical industry nine million labour hours and £400m each year.

Under the terms of the new deal, Klein Tools have made a significant financial investment in Super Rod, which will also serve as a master distributor for Klein Tools. The deal brings Klein into City Electric, an electrical wholesale network in the UK.

Super Rod’s ‘Adoxim' material, developed in Blaenavon, has been making a significant impact in the US, French, German and Japanese markets for some years now and it already enjoys 80 per cent share in the UK.

Such success captured the attention of Klein Tools, the Chicago-headquartered electricians’ hand tool manufacturers, who approached the Welsh company in 2013.

Super Rod managing director Malcolm Duncan said: “The completion of this partnership with such a large and respected US firm is a huge achievement for a comparatively small Welsh company. The team at Capital Law has been instrumental in helping us to achieve our goals. Importantly they think as big as we do and our combined ‘can do’ attitudes have resulted in this landmark deal, which gives us real gravitas into the game-changing US market.

“I hope our partnership with such a big US firm can prove to other Welsh companies that we really can trade with the global big boys. In fact, our collaboration with Klein Tools is the second example of a company from Chicago investing in a South Wales manufacturing company in recent years. Electrical specialists, Panduit, which has an annual turnover in excess of $1bn invested in Unite in Usk. Maybe we should twin Wales and Chicago.”

Mark Klein, Klein Tools’ vice president of sales, said: “We are excited to bring the quality and legacy of Klein Tools from the US to the European market. Super Rod is a key partner and will introduce our products to more hard-working electricians who rely on professional tools that work as hard as they do.”

Super Rod employs 15 local people in Blaenavon, on the Gilchrist Thomas Industrial Estate.

In 2008 it won the Queens Award for Enterprise, which was followed by a second Queens Award in 2012.