The team at Fire and Acoustic Seals (FAS) has recently celebrated the company’s 12th birthday and looking forward to its ongoing success.
MBP Group launched the business back in April 2010 to provide fire, smoke and acoustic seals to its internal doorset manufacturing units and network of branches across the UK.
As the market evolved, MBP Group MD Martyn Finney recognised the potential to grow the business outside of the immediate group. In 2016 he appointed industry-expert Julian Vollans as MD to take the business forward and develop it into a more outward-facing company.
Julian comments: ‘When I started with FAS the sales were almost 100% internal to MBP Group. Since then we’ve worked hard to reposition our business by focusing on the market and what our different customers want.
‘This has involved introducing a next-day delivery service, restructuring our supply chain to work with like-minded partners who were open to developing better solutions, and setting up an e-commerce website shop for one-off trade sales. This has seen our sales grow six-fold, and the customer base split to a healthy 30% MBP Group and the rest across merchants, contractors and other joinery businesses.’
The 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster added even more importance on using high-performance, fire-critical products and the correct installation of them in buildings.
During this period, FAS introduced Fire Door Foam, which seals linear gaps between a doorframe and the wall. This revolutionary product saves on average 12 minutes for every door installed compared to more traditional methods using mineral fibre wool. Its huge success has been a significant step in developing a superior range of FAS own-label fire-rated products.
Julian’s passion for safety ensures that any of the products sold through the company are thoroughly tested and third-party certified. The Fire Door Foam and other FAS products have been certified under the prestigious Certifire scheme. He comments: ‘Whilst the Grenfell disaster was incredibly tragic, it did have a positive effect on bringing responsibility to the construction industry. It emphasised the importance of consciously selecting the correct fire safety critical products for each job, rather than just viewing them as commodity products.’
Following the company’s success and to sustain its growth it has had to relocate into a new warehouse and office facility and invest in the team. This has included several appointments in sales, account management and warehousing.
And it doesn’t stop there. Julian is keen to make sure FAS is at the forefront of the industry, providing a wider range of high specification fire-rated products that customers can trust.
Julian added: ‘I’m really excited about the future of the business and incredibly proud of how it has grown. It has been achieved by everyone being committed to its success – from suppliers to the MBP Group board – and focusing on the customer. I’m particularly proud of the team I’ve built along the way whose hard work and dedication have got it to where it is and are the foundation for taking it onto the next level.’
For more information, go to www.fireandacousticseals.co.uk
