BLAZING MARKET.

Fire as a commodity? It is to one Parry Sound company shooting for sales of $100-M within three years

Less than two kilometres into Parry Sound's industrial park is a fire-training company not content with annual revenues of $20 million. Over the next few years Gary Joice and three other principal owners of Pro-Safe Fire Training Systems Inc., plan to drastically increase that amount with an aggressive marketing strategy.

"I see a far larger market than what we have now," says Joice, a former electrician, police officer and firefighter from Barrie who saw a need 10 years ago for specialized training for firefighters in high-risk industries.

"With proper marketing and production expansion, I can see us up at $100 million a year within two to three years."

His strategy includes the recent hiring of two marketing specialists, attending key trade shows around the world, networking with firefighting organizations globally and creating a full-time maintenance division whose primary function will be follow-up work to ensure customer satisfaction.

Pro-Safe designs and builds fire simulations of mobile aircraft and other fire-setting devices that customers use for firefighting training. The equipment is designed by firefighters for their peers who know the characteristics required for realistic hands-on training of emergency response in industrial, municipal and military settings.

The company provides turn-key units and has professional engineers, architects, firefighters and instructors to assist customers.

"These simulators create all the fires you would run into in an aircraft situation," Joice says. Pro-Safe customers include NASA, the U.S. National Guard, the U.S. Air Force, the Detroit airport, the Denver International Airport, Toronto's Pearson International Airport and airports in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

His company has built mobile fire simulators for customers in Portugal and Korea, and recently he and his team travelled to Japan to train Japanese firefighters to use their new simulator in fire rescue procedures. All units are remote-controlled and use propane fuel rather than diesel or gasoline fuel.

"The U.S. navy is very satisfied with what we provided. Last year they issued us a five-year contract to build three others for the national guard in Mississippi, North Dakota and Georgia," Joice says.

Pro-Safe currently employs 32 full-and part-time people at its Parry Sound facility, with more working from client service offices in Texas, Virginia and Florida.

With greater global emphasis on worker safety and stricter fire codes and compliance regulations, Joice says he sees increased opportunity for his company.

With the new marketing team and a CD promoting services of Pro-Safe to be distributed around the world, Joice says he expects a sure-fire increase in sales.

"You can't sit still," he says.