On the front line

Investing millions of dollars each year into R&D and product development programmes, Paul Janusz, VP Sales EMEA of Tyco explains how the company is thriving in the challenging area of fire protection.

“Tyco has ambitious plans for development in the Middle East region through expansion of our sales presence: we expect to see an increased sales force operating out of joint operational offices over the next 18 months”
-Paul Janusz

Fire protection is one of the most challenging areas of the infrastructure sector, particularly in the Middle East. What are the key challenges from your perspective and how are you working to tackle them?

Paul Janusz. The Middle East continues to grow and develop its own personality through its growing reputation for construction innovation, unique building design, and its growing influence as a manufacturer of raw materials and finished goods. The ME fire protection market presents unique challenges, combining prescriptive, code-driven water sprinkler markets with more complex engineered systems found in gas extinguishing solutions, driven by insurers and loss prevention philosophies.

This environment presents technological and commercial challenges which Tyco Fire Suppression & Building Products (Tyco FS&BP) has thrived in for many years, resulting in the company becoming one the biggest fire protection players in the region.

We recognise the technical demands and preferences of the Middle East, together with its expectation of high-quality product and an insistence on proven fire protection solutions. TFS&BP invests millions of dollars each year into R&D and product development programmes; a strategy which has already created market leading brands such as Ansul and products such as Inergen.

How has the global economic crisis affected the fire protection sector in the Middle East in your opinion?

PJ. The fire protection sector relies on both construction and POG (petrochemical, oil and gas) industries to drive growth. The recent economic crisis has been severe and quick to impact these key sectors so the fire protection market has been impacted, although perhaps not as much as other more exposed industries; perhaps due to safety requirements maintaining a level of activity throughout the crisis.

With some key economies showing signs of growth or at least of bottoming out we anticipate an increase in the flow of projects in the pipeline, leading to a return to growth in the second half of 2010.

The fire protection market in the Middle East is still considered fairly immature. Where do you see the key areas for growth and why?

PJ. We anticipate an increasing demand for more complex fire protection including gaseous suppression systems and bespoke fire safety systems, where Tyco has significant market share and a complete range of installation protection solutions ranging from sprinklers and the grooved piping products used in their installation, through portable fire extinguishers, gaseous clean agent suppression systems and including special hazard solutions such as specialist foam agents and foam proportioning and delivery hardware.

The growing, high level of Middle East engineering and project expertise has helped Tyco enormously because the same levels of performance and reliability expected by end users defines our own product performance expectations. In effect, Tyco is engaged in raising the expectation 'bar' on a continual basis, reviewing and improving our product range: their performance, cost and effects on the environment, all of which will continue to shape our product investment development programmes.

Many large companies now include an environmental strategy. How do you view your environmental obligations?

PJ. Tyco has a corporate commitment to the environment and to leading the industry through the development of cleaner, greener products and processes. In the fire fighting sector this has translated to pollutant free portable fire extinguishers, 'green' fire fighting foam agents, cleaner gas suppression systems and the use of alternate materials in our products.

Do you have any plans for expansion in the next 12 to 24 months? If so, where? What can we expect to see from Tyco in this time?

PJ. Tyco has ambitious plans for development in the Middle East region through an expansion of our sales presence: we expect to see an increased sales force operating out of joint operational offices over the next 18 months. TFS&BP will continue to develop its distribution and contractor customer bases in established markets such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, as well as extending into identified new markets for us, such as Libya, where we are investing to improve our local market understanding and build upon our existing representation channels.

In summary, TFS&BP sees a great future in the Middle East; we understand and respect our customers and users and we have a successful history and very successful brands which we will continue to develop, to the benefit of our distribution and contracting partners and also of our own business.

Paul Janusz is VP of Sales for the EMEA region. A veteran of both Tyco and the fire protection industry, Paul is responsible for ongoing sales and new business development for the whole range of fire control and suppression solutions within Tyco's FS&BP product and systems portfolio.