Emergency Solutions
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Emergency Solutions - innovative shelters for the emergency services
Emergency Solutions Limited designs and manufactures a revolutionary type of inflatable emergency shelter - the emer®tent - which is widely used by the emergency services and other organisations as their first response shelter. The Essex-based company, which has won awards for innovation, has seen fast-track growth through practical support, funding and mentoring from Essex County Council’s Essex Innovation Programme (EIP) and the University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing (IfM).
Tony Southern, founder and CEO of Emergency Solutions, is a retired senior police officer who knows first hand the problems facing emergency services on site. “I had to attend a crime scene in the early hours of the morning where heavy rain was literally washing away potentially-important forensic evidence. That’s what gave me the initial idea for the product.”
The emer®tent is an air-sealed inflatable emergency shelter which is designed to be deployed from vehicles or delivered in quantity on pallets. It is very light and can be easily carried and erected quickly by one person in urban or rural environments. That makes it a unique and cost-effective method of providing shelter for protecting casualties, crime scenes and emergency workers.
Taking this innovative idea from concept to finished product has been challenging for someone with no manufacturing background, but Tony Southern found that Essex offered all the help and support he needed.
“The team at EIP recognised the quality and importance of the idea, and helped lever funding for advisory work from the IfM. We were in regular contact with a mentor and that really helped with product development and sourcing. Later EIP supported an application to East of England Development Agency for continued IfM support.”
Emergency Solutions has been able to operate and grow as a small lean operation thanks to the availability of a good local supply chain in Essex, as Tony Southern explains.
“Once again the EIP team gave us valuable help by introducing us to potential outsourcing partners who have proved a great complementary fit with our business.”
Support like this has given the company a rapid start in its early years and helped open up other potential markets. “An emergency tent which was initially designed to protect murder crime scenes is now being used to save people’s lives,” says Tony Southern.
“The emer®tent is being used by the Fire and Rescue Service as part of a ‘Key Stage 2’ schools programme, teaching children how to escape from smoke-filled rooms. First-aid organisations are using the tent to protect casualties and international Search and Rescue teams use them to establish base camps quickly so that they can spend more time performing rescues. We’re also looking forward to new opportunities in the United States which we visited as part of an Essex trade mission.”
Emergency Solutions now looks set for continued healthy growth.
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