K5 building $100mn fire safety factory in Ajman

K5 Middle East, a firefighting products, solutions and technologies company, is investing $100mn to build its first manufacturing facility in Ajman the Middle East.

The announcement was made at Intersec 2017, the world’s leading trade fair for security, safety and fire protection taking place from January 22 to 24, 2017 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC).

Alex Perfiliev, CEO, K5 Distribution, said: “We are highly excited with the construction of our first-ever manufacturing facility in the Middle East which will address the growing demand for fire safety solutions in the region.

“We foresee a high demand for innovative fire safety solutions in the UAE as Dubai Civil Defence’s Strategic Plan 2017-2021 to reduce fire incidents by 10 percent and the ratio of death caused by fire per 10,000 people by 15 per cent.

“While the UAE remains our key market, we will explore other potential market in the region, including the KSA, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman to bring our annual sales from this region to USD 100 million per annum.”

The move complements a recent report by Frost & Sullivan that the GCC’s fire safety market is expected to grow at an average of 15 percent to touch $3.15bn by 2020.

The UAE accounts for 34 percent or $476mn of the GCC’s $1.4bn fire safety market, driven mainly by the local construction boom.

Demand for fire safety systems and equipment is expected to get a major boost as World Expo 2020 draws near and as work on major construction projects progresses up to 2021.

Sales of detection systems and equipment – including smoke and heat detectors and fire extinguishers – dominate the UAE’s fire safety systems and equipment market.

Evgeny Gabov, Director, K5 Middle East, added: “K5 Middle East has very high expectations from the robust fire and safety market of the Middle East and particularly from the UAE which is a growing market.

“Alongside K5 SAFETY PATCH and K5 PATCHPAINT, the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will produce paints, foams, coatings and construction materials equipped with fire extension capacity.

“Our clients in the region include manufacturers of electrical equipment, developers, facilities management firms, and social care institutions. In the long term, we have plans to enter India and China, which are large markets along with Europe.”