Friday the 4th September marked the one millionth Dorgard sale!

Fireco was founded in 1995 by inventor and designer, Neil Purssey. The company was originally called Dorgard Ltd, named after the first product Neil brought to market.

Dorgard is a door retainer that holds doors open and when the fire alarm sounds, will release and close the door, preventing the spread of fire.

Neil originally had the idea of Dorgard when watching a ‘Dancing Daisy’, which would only dance when there was a sound near it. This got Neil thinking – what other items would be useful if they were sound activated?

Dorgard was then designed to replace dangerous door wedges, by allowing people to hold their doors open, with the peace of mind that when the fire alarm sounded, the Dorgards would ‘hear’ it and close the door.

Over the past 25 years, new products have been designed and manufactured to meet the needs of the market, leading to the company name being changed to Fireco in 2001. Now with 8 products in the range and more to come, Fireco is considered one of the leading brands for fire door retaining devices. What was once a small business originating in Brighton, has expanded to selling its products worldwide.

Until recently, Fireco was focussed on fire safety, specifically fire door related products. With the Coronavirus pandemic taking over and changing our everyday lives, fire safety was no longer Fireco’s main concern. They knew they had to act in order to support businesses to keep their environments safe.

Dorgard has since been used as a device to hold doors open safely, whilst also reducing the need to touch door handles and therefore limiting cross-contamination. Many different industries, from the NHS to schools and offices have reached out to inquire about how Dorgard can help. It was through this shift, that Dorgard made it to one million sales.

From left to right, Alex Babbage, James Wheeler, Helen Elligate, Wayne Ellett, Michelle Bussey.

“The last 6 months have been challenging for businesses across the country, so we feel extremely grateful that we have something so positive to celebrate. We are proud to say we have supplied our Millionth Dorgard unit.

 

Over the last 25 years, Fireco has worked tirelessly on the development and manufacture of innovative products that help keep premises fire safe and help save lives. When COVID-19 hit our business we reacted quickly and recognized the huge importance of Dorgard not only as a fire safety product but as a product that can assist with a premises germ control strategy.

 

Since then we have shifted our focus on how we can help and have been pleased to have donated products and services to those in most need. Our team has relished the challenge and we have been privileged in supporting the NHS and other organizations in their fight against COVID-19.

 

Manufacturing in our new premises in Sussex, we are proud to continue investing in Engineering and Manufacturing in the UK and the local area, together with being an active exporter into Europe and the rest of the world.” – Michelle Bussey, Chief Operations Officer at Fireco.

Although unexpected, all the employees at Fireco are glad they could help their customers with germ control as well as fire safety. However, they wanted to go one step further, so with a turn around of 3 months, they designed and launched Germgard, the Smart Sanitising System.

Germgard uses digital signage to alert users to sanitise their hands before gaining entry. This system can be used stand-alone or can be integrated with access control, automatic doors and electronic door locks, making the use of hand sanitiser a requirement before access is allowed.

Even through these uncertain and unsettling times, Fireco has pulled through and not only survived but thrived. This wouldn’t have been possible without all of their employees, installers, resellers, suppliers and customers. So for that, everyone from Fireco would like to say a massive thank you.