CEO Mark Bridges discusses Ranger Fire and Security‘s strategy to bridge service gaps in the fire and security industry through strategic partnerships and acquisitions

Ranger Fire and Security has marked its ambitious entry into the UK’s fire and security sector through strategic acquisitions, aiming to consolidate a fragmented market under one pioneering umbrella.

With the acquisition of Ignis Fire Protection Ltd, Amerex Fire International Ltd and Syncro Group Ltd, Ranger is setting the stage for a new era of collaborative excellence.

Founded by a team of industry specialists and business experts, Ranger seeks to create a unique platform that delivers innovative solutions and a comprehensive service range by uniting high-quality businesses.

This move looks to enhance service delivery but also to establish a new standard of quality and reliability in the sector.

As Ranger Fire and Security embarks on this journey, we sit down with CEO Mark Bridges to discuss the company’s vision, strategy, and the future of the fire and security industry.

What gaps or opportunities in the UK fire sector does Ranger aim to address?

The Hyperion team had been looking at the right markets in which to invest in, and coming across the fire and security industry it ticked a lot of boxes for them around the stability, high levels of recurring revenue, barriers to entry and market dynamics being quite fragmented.

The Hyperion team were introduced to Ian Teader who has a lot of experience in the fire and security industry.

I was able to bring knowledge of ‘man-in-van’ operations from my time at Indesit, HomeServe, Domestic & General, and Pimlico Plumbers.

The more we researched the market, coupled with the insight with the team, we got really comfortable.

The key was then acquiring the right businesses that offered a great level of service through employed engineers, with founders that were keen to remain heavily involved and benefit from being part of the Ranger Group and offered exceptional levels of leadership.

That is what we have found with Amerex and Ignis, Syncro, and what we will be looking for in planned future acquisitions.

The market is very fragmented. There are some very good local businesses that offer exceptional service.

However, they are unable to offer all of the services, and also unable to offer all of the geographic coverage.

We will solve for this issue, as we build out our services and geography, with the potential to replicate successful trends observed in the United States.

It is really compelling to be able to offer a one-stop solution for all your fire and security needs under one umbrella, and that is what we will deliver.

Why were Ignis, Amerex and Syncro chosen as your initial acquisitions?

We are backing businesses with exceptional and committed leadership and we expect the existing leadership to remain in their positions, running and growing their businesses.

Both of Amerex Fire International and Ignis Fire Protection provided us with different service, but critically both came with exceptional leadership in Steve Evans and Martin Donald that delivered great service.

We were impressed by their operations and their keenness to join the Ranger platform to grow their businesses.

With Syncro Group, they are a very well-respected national business with a focused and proven track record of providing customers with the highest service quality for their compliance needs.

Syncro’s leaders, Paul Fallon and Gerry Bates, believed in our vision and strategy and saw great opportunity in working together to not only bring a better level of service to more people, but the ability to capitalise on areas for collaboration.

All of the existing management of each of the businesses will become Managing Directors at Ranger, with a position in the Ranger management team.

They will be a critical component of our group moving forwards and will continue to deliver their fantastic services.

In what ways will the unification of services under Ranger benefit your clients, particularly in terms of service quality and reliability?

Huge and rapid transformation in the UK’s fire & security industry has made it substantially more regulated, highly skilled and constantly changing.

Subsequently, many businesses in the sector focus on one or two areas of fire and security rather than the full range of services.

By partnering with businesses that have fantastic service quality and reliability, and by bringing those businesses together, we are able to offer our customers a new kite mark in quality.

The Ranger brand will be synonymous with that quality, and give customers comfort that we can serve their fire and security needs across all services and geographies.

Additionally, as mentioned previously, we aim to offer full suite service for customers and there will be gaps in services we will be able to offer to our clients under one umbrella, as opposed to them having to go out to multiple fire/security businesses.

Beyond the initial acquisitions, what is the next step for Ranger in expanding its service offerings and market reach?

We expect to announce more companies joining the Ranger group soon.

Our intention is to scale the group significantly by the end of 2024, with plans for further investment, acquisitions and innovations over the years to come.

We have an incredibly active acquisition pipeline with a number of businesses in heads of terms and a plenty of others in active discussions.

Since our recent acquisition announcements, we have been inundated with businesses that are keen to join us on our journey.

We will continue to be active in acquiring the best services across the UK, and welcome further discussions with the right founders and owners.

How do you foresee Ranger’s role in driving innovation within the fire and security sector?

Building out a national platform that offers service quality and reliability across all services is an important innovation for our current and future customers.

We think that this is a unique proposition.

Our scale enables us to invest in technology giving us a single view of the customer’s needs and wants, simplifying processes for all of the stakeholders.

With our scale we will seek high level engagement with leading manufacturers to drive and deliver innovative systems and solutions to meet the ever-developing needs of our current and prospective clients.

However, the other key is to keep that local service quality that Amerex Fire International, Ignis Fire Protection and Syncro Group, offer their customers today.

To keep this balance, we need motivated engaged founders joining us on our journey.

How does Ranger intend to engage with and support the wider community of fire and security professionals?

Ranger will be present in the wider community.

We will be attending events all across the UK.

Ian Teader the Group MD, alongside Gerry Bates, Paul Fallon, Martin Donald and Steve Evans, are already well plugged into the wider community, and as we grow our scale we will ensure that we are working across the industry to ensure that standards are raised and fire and security safety are at the forefront of people’s minds.

Could you explain the strategic importance of vehicle and kitchen suppression services within Ranger’s portfolio?

It is very rare in business that you are given a blank piece of paper and given the opportunity to define what good looks like.

However that is what we were given with Ranger.

At the outset we said that we wanted to be a one-stop shop for all fire and security needs, and vehicle and kitchen suppression services are some of those needs.

There are not as many opportunities to acquire these niches, so when the opportunity came up to partner with Amerex Fire International, and meeting Steve Evans, who is a fantastic leader of the business, we jumped at the opportunity.

Steve has a real ambition to further build out his national platform that is built on the quality of his service under Ranger.

It is great to bring to bring in someone of Steve’s undoubted calibre to the Ranger platform from the off.

How does Ranger envision leveraging technology to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of fire and security services?

We will leverage technology to make dealing with Ranger as seamless as possible for our staff and our customers.

Over time, technology will be an enabler for offering all of our services.

We want customers to be able to see all of the services that we offer and make informed decisions on what and when they require them.

Investing in the right technology at scale will simplify processes for all stakeholders, both our employees, and customers.

What are some of the long-term industry trends Ranger is preparing to respond to or capitalise on?

Looking at the overall market, our view is that the demands on our customers to be compliant with regulation are only going to become more stringent.

This can be fire safety regulations, or to ensure compliance with insurance policies.

Our ability to offer a technology enabled one-stop-solution for all requirements takes the stress and hassle away from our customers.

Ranger’s solution will help all UK businesses, charities and public sector bodies seeking high quality services to help meet their own fire & security requirements in a way that hasn’t existed or performed well in the UK market previously.

Looking at the internal supply of labour, historically, training within the fire and security industry has been fragmented and it is our intention to engage with our companies and at the right point, develop our own training academy, and apprenticeships to ensure that our employees are trained to the highest level and continue to develop their skill to deliver a quality service.

For further information, contact: [email protected]