 The British government and Welsh employment bodies funded and subsidized external businesses to locate new ventures within the valleys to replace the vanishing heavy industries . The first attempt to bring in business not connected to the coal mining industry began in the 1920s when David Jones , Town Clerk to the Rhondda Urban Council , gained government support in attracting outside businesses to the area . Companies included Alfred Polikoff 's clothing factory , Messers Jacob Beatus , manufacturing cardboard boxes and Electrical and Musical Industries Ltd . Following the end of the Second World War , 23 companies were set up in the Rhondda Valleys , eighteen of them sponsored by the Board of Trade . Most companies had periods of growth and collapse , notably Thorn EMI in the 1970s and Burberry in the 2000s . 
