Thursday, 17 September 2026
It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the devastating news that Owain Davies, Managing Director of Amcanu, has died in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps.
For everyone at Amcanu, it is difficult to find the words to describe the sense of loss we feel.
Owain was our Managing Director, but to many of us he was much more than that. He was a familiar face on the factory floor, an unstoppable force, a mentor and, for many people who have spent a significant part of their working lives at Amcanu… a very good friend.
Above everything else, he was a husband, father and grandfather. Our thoughts and love are with his wife Michelle, his children Aron and Ffion, his father Spencer, his grandchildren Oakley and Albie, and the wider family at what is an unimaginably difficult time.
Anyone who knew Owain will know that he was a real character – determined, strong-willed, spirited, reflective and immensely proud – he was someone who believed that nothing was impossible, often saying “There are no such things as problems… only opportunities.”
Where others might see something daunting or difficult, Owain’s instinct was to work out what could be done and then get on with it. Occasionally that determination could make him seem a little brash, but behind it was a deeply caring person who genuinely wanted the best for his family, his employees, his business and his community.
Owain’s strength of character earned him enormous respect and admiration.
Amcanu was started by Owain’s father, Spencer Davies OBE, in Burry Port in 1975.
Owain grew up around the business and was immensely proud of what his father had created. When the responsibility of leading Amcanu passed to him, he took solid foundations and began to shape the company into the business we recognise today.
Owain created a much clearer focus. Amcanu had always been a highly capable fabrication business that could make almost anything. Owain saw the opportunity to become exceptional at one thing: designing and manufacturing enclosures.
Over the years, virtually every part of the factory evolved around making better enclosures and bringing all of the manufacturing processes in-house. Owain continually invested in people, equipment and technology – from modern powder-coating and advanced laser cutting through to automation and cobot welding. The result is the modern manufacturing business Amcanu is today. And Owain absolutely loved it.
But for all his pride in the factory, the machinery and the products leaving Burry Port, he was prouder still of the people behind them.
Many members of the Amcanu team have developed their careers within the company, and Owain became a mentor to many. He was enormously proud of seeing people grow, learn new skills, take on responsibility and build their careers at Amcanu.
In recent years, nothing made him prouder than seeing his own children becoming increasingly involved in the family business. Aron and Ffion are now both active within Amcanu, continuing a family connection that stretches across three generations.
In one of their final conversations, Owain was away on a flying trip, doing what he loved, while Aron was back at Amcanu, sitting at his father’s desk and taking the lead in his absence. Owain expressed a great deal of confidence in him – a moment that now carries extraordinary significance. It said a great deal about where Owain felt the business had reached, but perhaps even more about the pride he felt in his son. Aron has lost his father, but he has also lost his mentor. As have many of us at Amcanu.
Despite the considerable role that Amcanu played in Owain’s life, his family was always at the centre of it. He was immensely proud of Aron and Ffion and deeply devoted to Michelle. He absolutely adored being a grandfather to Oakley and Albie.
Those who knew Owain well, saw another side of the determined businessman when he talked about his family. Becoming a grandad brought him enormous happiness, and spending more time with his family had become increasingly important to him.
Family pride extended into Amcanu too. The company has always been a family business, but that has never simply meant the Davies name above the door. Family values – looking after people, supporting one another and taking responsibility – have shaped the culture of Amcanu for generations.
Owain cared deeply about the people who worked here.
Owain was also enormously proud of where he came from. Burry Port mattered to him.
He was known by people throughout the local community and recognised wherever he went. He had an instinctive desire to help, whether that meant supporting local schools, clubs and community organisations or simply doing something practical for someone who needed it.
For Owain, Amcanu being successful in Burry Port meant something.
He wanted the business to create opportunities, particularly for local young people. He believed in apprenticeships, in giving people a chance and in helping individuals build worthwhile careers without having to leave the community in which they had grown up.
That commitment reached well beyond the factory gates.
Owain was also a highly regarded figure within the wider Welsh business community and contributed his time and experience to a number of organisations over the years. His work with Wales Air Ambulance was particularly important to him, and something of which he was immensely proud.
He was proudly Welsh, a Welsh speaker, and always an enthusiastic advocate for Welsh manufacturing and Welsh business.
There was another side of Owain that not everybody knew about. He loved flying.
Owain was an experienced pilot and aviation was a genuine passion – technically, socially and simply for the freedom and enjoyment it gave him. He had a large circle of friends within the aviation community and would fly his helicopter whenever the opportunity arose.
He didn’t make a great show of it. In fact, many people who knew him professionally may never have known how important aviation was to him.
At the time of the accident, Owain was travelling as a passenger, alongside two of his closest friends.
The circumstances of his death are devastating, but flying was something that brought Owain enormous happiness throughout his life.
Today, our focus is first and foremost on Owain’s family and on supporting one another.
We also appreciate that customers, suppliers and friends of Amcanu will understandably wonder what his loss means for the business he led.
Amcanu is a 51-year-old family business that has survived, adapted and grown through generations of change.
The Davies family remain deeply involved in the company, just as they always have, and Amcanu has an established and highly capable team responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.
For our customers and suppliers, we also want to offer some reassurance. Our current orders and commitments remain secure and will continue to be managed and delivered by the team. The plans for the next stage of Amcanu’s development had already been discussed and agreed with Owain, and that work will continue.
There will be difficult days ahead, and nobody would pretend that losing somebody as prominent in Amcanu as Owain does not leave an enormous space.
But he also leaves us extraordinarily well prepared.
He leaves behind a business with a clear purpose.
A modern factory of which he was immensely proud.
A remarkably capable team in which he had enormous confidence.
A family increasingly involved in the business.
And a set of values, principles and ambitions that are deeply embedded in Amcanu.
Perhaps most importantly, he leaves behind an enormous number of people whose lives are better for having known him.
Owain was admired. He was respected. He was sometimes formidable. He was enormously caring.
He was a husband, a dad, a grandad, a son, a mentor, a leader and a friend.
And he will be missed more than we can possibly express.
From all of us at Amcanu, thank you, Owain.
