Black Country fire protection firm lands £400,000 shopping centre contract

BLACK Country-based fire protection firm, Argus Fire has secured a £400,000 contract to work on the redevelopment of one of the area’s major shopping centres.

The Stourbridge-based company has been appointed by construction company Bowmer & Kirkland to safeguard shoppers and retail staff at Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre.

The contract will see Argus Fire install sprinklers and wet and dry risers to support the three-level complex, owned by Benson Elliot, as part of a £35m revamp.

Argus Fire will also decommission existing water supplies and provide new sprinkler tanks and fire pump sets, as well as modify the existing sprinkler pipework network in order to create a new network for the centre.

This will accommodate the sprinkler provision for a new 90,000 sq ft flagship Debenhams store, opening in autumn 2017, and ten other larger stores including three of between 17,000 sq ft and 26,000 sq ft.

Argus Fire, which has a history of installing fire protection equipment at the Mander Centre, is scheduled to complete the contract next spring.  

Ben Smith, senior manager at Argus Fire, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen once again to design and build new fire protection systems for such a major local facility as it redevelops with larger stores and improved access facilities.”