Fire Industry Association’s P50 Choice 'Huge Endorsement' For Britannia Fire Ltd

The pioneer of the UK’s largest fire protection trade association has chosen the ‘Best of British’ manufacturing for new fire extinguishers throughout his fire equipment factory. 

Derek Gotts, the Chair of the Fire Industry Association, has fitted Britannia Fire’s game-changing composite P50 across his Cambridgeshire factory that makes and supplies equipment for fire and rescue services.

Seamless

The Supply Plus Managing Director, who also sits on several British Standards Institution (BSI) committees, said buying made-in-Britain products should be the 'go-to' for every UK business. Service from Britannia Fire was 'seamless'.

“The government should legislate for it. It makes sense to buy from other British manufacturers. When you buy from the UK you are investing in a UK employer, UK jobs, and PAYE. It is a societal benefit to buy British,” said Mr. Gotts, who has been Chair of the FIA and its more than 900 members for nearly four years.

P50’s USP

It made “significant savings” by swapping 49 metal CO2, powder, foam, and water extinguishers for 32 P50 powder and foam

Supply Plus exports to more than 40 counties and turned over £8 million last year. It made 'significant savings' by swapping 49 metal CO2, powder, foam, and water extinguishers for 32 P50 powder and foam models across the site at the Papworth Business Park, Papworth Everard, near Cambridge, where 65 people work.

Key to the decision was the P50’s USP, it is the only extinguisher that needs no external service contracts and can be checked in-house, which delivers long-term savings.

corrosion-resistant

Karen Hull, Supply Plus Compliance Director, said “A big benefit is not having to have an engineer from an independent company come in to service the units. We can check them ourselves. I did Zoom training with a member of staff, who did the checks."

She adds, “On top of the savings, we have fewer and a far more straightforward collection of extinguishers. The corrosion-resistant P50 made of Kevlar aramid thread wrapped around a multi-layer inner cylinder and cased in composite- is multi-use so eliminates any potential emergency “decision paralysis” in the event of a fire."

blue, black, and red extinguishers

Karen Hull continues, “It means no one has to decide between the blue, black, and red extinguishers. It’s clear which one to use. Britannia Fire was very efficient, installing the P50s, replacing all the stickers, taking away our old extinguishers, which was an important service to us.”

Britannia Fire, which exports to more than 25 countries, was featured in ITV4’s Made in Britain series as one of the ‘best of British’ manufacturers. At Christmas, viewers of BBC2’s The Factory watched fire extinguishers be hand-made at its Ashwellthorpe factory, filled with CO2 from the Bulmer’s Cider production, where it is a by-product.

Sustainability 2.0 strategy

The P50 was chosen by Heathrow Airport as its extinguisher of choice across all terminals

Andy Spence, Britannia Fire Sales Director, said “To have the chairman of the FIA choose the P50, a British-made innovation that changed the fire extinguisher industry by taking away the need for external servicing is a huge endorsement of our product and compliment to Britannia Fire.”

The P50, invented in Norfolk by Britannia Fire’s founder Roger Carr, was chosen by Heathrow Airport as its extinguisher of choice across all terminals, because it fitted its Sustainability 2.0 strategy, for its lower carbon footprint and efficiency. It is also fitted across retail chains, NHS buildings, on ambulances, and other emergency frontline vehicles, including fire and rescue services.

simple maintenance 

Innovation has been at the forefront of Britannia Fire the Norfolk range was launched in the 1960s, followed by the Britannia range, still popular and protects buildings and people all over the world.

What makes the multi-use P50 special apart from its plastic construction with Kevlar aramid thread wrapped around a multi-layer inner cylinder and cased in a composite is that it can be maintained in-house by simple checks by trained staff.