At New Year, most cultures practise a review of the preceding year alongside a celebration of the arrival of the new, greeting friends and family with parties and feasting.
One Welsh New Year tradition of South West Wales takes place on January 13th instead of January 1st, recognising an ancient Julian calendar instead of the now widely adopted Gregorian calendar.
In Gwaum Valley and surrounding areas, ‘Hen Galan’ (old New Year) was celebrated with feasting, special songs and poems invoking health, happiness and prosperity in the year to come. ‘Calennig’ (New Year or first day of the month) was a tradition (similar to Halloween’s ‘trick or treating’) where children visited homes to be given sweets or coins, and left a handmade gift of a decorative ‘perllan’ – an apple studded with leaves and cloves standing on three twigs.
The children of Cwm Gwaun go door to door singing and collecting calennig in 1961
However we celebrate, or perhaps commiserate, the turning of the year it is a time of Reflection, Review, and Resolution.
Reflection and Review
Looking back over 2025, the Swansea area, and the environs of Parc Felindre achieved significant progress and development, in the specialist areas of regeneration, business development, and growth in sectors such as tech, digital and health and well being.
Key regeneration projects2
- 71/72 Kingsway office building
providing space for tech and digital jobs - Palace Theatre
offering new business hub for Tramshed Tech - Copr Bay
first phase opening 1.1-acre coastal park, bridge over Oystermouth Road, car parking, apartments, food and drink businesses - Wind Street
introducing new paving, seating and green space.
Key economic achievements
- The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD)
launches Innovation Matrix, connecting academia and businesses - Pentre Awel
a health and medical research facility.
- Veeqo
new businesses opening Amazon-owned Veeqo - The Swansea Bay City Deal
continued to attract investment and create thousands of jobs - Biophilic Living
Hacer Developments plan to reconnect humankind with nature and create a cohesive community - St Helens Sports Ground
Osprey rugby club’s planned return to its original stadium combines championing local business.
Key cultural achievements
Culturally, 2025 featured successful venues and a variety of events.
- The Swansea Building Society Arena
reached nearly one million visitors and hosted Manic Street Preachers and Alison Moyet - The Gŵyl NAWR festival
celebrated Welsh music and creativity - Ironman 70.3 Swansea
- Swansea Food and Drink Festival
- Gower Walking Festival
- annual Christmas Parade.
- Being Human Festival
hosted by Swansea University - Swansea Open 2025
held by Glynn Vivian Art Gallery1
Resolution
Parc Feindre is part of an upwardly mobile forward thinking region, and offers a specialist bespoke location to business looking for an environment to match their ethos.
Two new ventures demonstrate the growth potential of the region. Their voices and vision back the regional resolve to continue to build and grow throughout the New Year of 2026.
Veeqo
Veeqo has selected a new location at the 71/72 Kingsway office scheme in Swansea city centre. The business produces free shipping and inventory management software for more than 100,000 businesses worldwide. Their software makes e-commerce more efficient by fulfilling and syncing orders across multiple websites and stores.
Acquired by Amazon in 2021, Veeqo launched its first office - and Amazon's first 'Development Centre' in Wales - in 2022 and has grown from 60 employees to more than 200 in the last three years, with half of those now based at the brand-new Swansea site.The new Swansea headquarters will provide the Welsh team with modern facilities to continue developing cutting-edge e-commerce solutions.
CEO Matt Warren, who founded Veeqo in 2013 said:
"Our expanded office in Swansea enables us to continue building services which make it easier for entrepreneurs and businesses to sell around the world. I'm proud that we've continued creating highly skilled tech jobs in Wales and that our homegrown company is making a big global impact.”
The new headquarters has now been officially opened in an event attended by Cllr Rob Stewart, Swansea Council Leader, as well as Torsten Bell, Treasury Minister and MP for Swansea West.
Cllr Stewart said:
"Veeqo is a true local success story — a business born here, grown here, and now thriving internationally under Amazon. Having them at the 71/72 Kingsway development is a vote of confidence in our city's talent, infrastructure, and future as a leading city for businesses in the tech sector.”
Biophilic Living
The vision for an eye-catching 'living building' at the heart of Swansea gets a green light from Swansea Council. Hacer Developments' plans, will come to fruition and see a new 12-storey tower built to provide an educational facility, residential apartments, shops, offices and a courtyard. It will be green-minded, with a bio-diverse look featuring living – or biophilic – walls and roofs along with rooftop solar panels, battery storage, and gardens.4
Parc Felindre is similarly green minded with expert landscaping, invigorating views and convenient urban access. Built for direct access to M4 / J46 the main commercial artery from London. Enjoy the best of both worlds - the foundation of the past and the potential of the future.
Contact our agent direct for more information on Bespoke Business Land available NOW!
References
1 swansea.gov.uk SWANSEA ECONOMIC PROFILE: NOVEMBER 2025
2 https://coprbayswansea.com
3 https://www.swansea.gov.uk/Veeqo
4 https://www.walesonline.co.uk/
Photographs courtesy of
https://nation.cymru/feature/calennig-the-welsh-new-year-tradition-few-still-celebrate/
Geoff Charles/National Library of Wales
Penter Awel Swansea Bay City Deal
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/
Hacer Developments
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/biophilic-living-picton-yard-swansea-19988846
