New Zealand's firefighters will soon be kitted out with new helmets supplied by Wanganui company Pacific Helmets.
This is another generation of helmets the Wanganui firm has supplied to the New Zealand Fire Service (NZFS) coming about 30 years after it won its first helmet contract.
That 1984 contract has led to a global market.
Over the past 10 years, the company has supplied about 100,000 helmets to one Australian state fire service and this year shipped a container-load of fire helmets to Kuwait, again about 10 years after it won its first tender in that market.
But David Bennett, principal of Pacific Helmets, said the NZFS was a ``cornerstone customer'' for his company.