Alex Lovén, the Founder & Managing Director of Net World Sports, has been awarded an MBE in King Charles’ first New Year’s Honours List.
At the age of 35, Alex has been recognised for his outstanding contribution to the economy and community of Wrexham. Having built a team of over 230 people from the local and surrounding areas, Net World Sports is already a major employer in the city. With our new £25m headquarters set to be fully open and operational in the next couple of weeks, more and more job opportunities will be created for the people of Wrexham.
Upon receiving the award, Alex stated:
“I am not someone who chases accolades, but being given this honour is really exciting…I received an email with the news about six weeks ago. At first, I thought it was spam and had to read it a couple of times for it to sink in”
“It arrived about the same time as the news broke that the last survivor of the Dambuster bouncing bomb raids of 1943, George Johnson, had died at the age of 101. He had also received an MBE so to get one myself felt very overwhelming and left me questioning if I was worthy of it…But this is not just for me, it is for all the people who have helped build the business. Seventy percent of people we employ are from Wrexham, and we couldn’t do it without them. So this is not just a personal award, it is a celebration of everything that we have all achieved.”
In 2013, just 4 years after the company’s inception in 2009, Alex developed and launched the FORZA football goal post range. FORZA has since become the UK’s number one football goal and training equipment provider, partnering with and supplying equipment to the likes of Manchester United, West Ham United, Newcastle United, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and most recently, the local National League club, Wrexham AFC.
The introduction and development of the company’s sub-brands, most notably FORZA, Vermont, FORTRESS and RapidFire, continues to boost the company’s growth, popularity and presence across the UK and overseas.
Alex and Net World Sports also continue to work directly with local charities, schools and organisations such as the Wrexham Civic Leadership Group which aims to develop and accelerate the regeneration of the city.
By: Andrew Griffiths