Profits pumping for former fireman

Vortex Holdings owner Mike Harrison, right, and technician Tony Spargo display a Phoenix Firepump SupaJet 1200 EFI delivering 1300 litres a minute at high pressure. Photo / Duncan Brown

Giving portable fire fighting water pumps more grunt was a popular move by Hastings fireman Mike Harrison.

The mechanic and owner of a Napier lawnmower shop, was well placed to do this in the 1990s as brigades asked for new engines.

He said the pumps available at the time were hideous to use.

When he ran out of decades-old brigade pumps to repower he designed his own, merging popular designs into his own high-volume and high-pressure Phoenix fire pump.

By 2001, he was forced to make a choice between fire fighting and making pumps and established Vortex Holdings.

"A lot of people thought I was mad," he said.

Realising New Zealand was too small for the niche business he took a pump to a trade show in Italy to show a potential distributor.

It caught the eye of respected UK fire pump maker Angus Fire, which asked him to produce Phoenix Firepumps under the Angus brand.

Phoenix pumps are exported to countries where Angus does not, with Indonesia and India showing strong growth.

Trade shows and word-of-mouth are the main sales avenues. "There are plenty of other fire pump companies out there but what we tend to produce is what we would consider to be the best."

Worried about copycat designs he avoided China at first.

"They are not interested in small niche market stuff and I have a very good distributor in China. Most of the Chinese Fire Brigades, surprisingly enough, only want to buy Western products."

The company currently makes 150 pumps a year.

"That doesn't probably sound like a huge amount but some of our pumps are worth $20,000 and they are all hand-built."

Sales grew 30 per cent last year and he is forecasting the same for the coming year, with 90 per cent going to fire brigades and the balance to shipping and oil industries.

The company is in Tikokino, after a two-year stint in Onekawa was too dusty for precision engineering.

Because the casting and assembly for large orders are contracted to Hawke's Bay engineering firms, the company has just three employees.

About 90 per cent of pumps are sold to fire brigades with the balance diesel-powered pumps sold to shipping and oil companies.

"Of all places we do quite well with Shell in Nigeria. They buy about 20 units a year off us - there is definitely growth potential in the oil industry. Indonesia is another good one for us."

Being both a mechanic and a fire fighter - he is chief fire officer for the Tikokino Volunteer Fire Brigade - has proved to be a boon for the business and his fire fighting knowledge.

"Our kind of customers don't buy off brochures so much - they want to see the product. Generally, you have to go and demonstrate the product to them as well."