Troubled smoke alarm firm turns to Germany for growth

COVENTRY-based smoke alarm supplier Sprue Aegis is targeting sales growth in Germany as it looks to turnaround what has been a difficult year for the business.

In September, the company announced a first half operating loss of £0.9m – but told its shareholders the performance was much better than had been expected.

It pointed then to a stronger second half of the year for the business.

In a trading update today, the company said it had secured orders worth €1.7m from its principal customer in Germany, EPS.

It said: “The board is pleased with the sales growth into Germany since the introduction of Sprue’s certified products with a Panasonic battery which is driving revenue and building on Sprue’s reputation for high quality products.  The board believes that Sprue is well positioned for further sales growth into Germany.”

The company had used Germany as the platform for the launch of its new Wi-Safe Connect product range, choosing Europe’s largest safety and security show in Essen as the showcase.

The company said it had received positive feedback from the event which in turn, had given rise to further hopes of growth.

Wi-Safe Connect is an innovative and intelligent, cloud-based alarm notification and network management system which utilises the Intamac source code acquired by the company in September this year.
 
It is billed as a professional B2B management system comprising Sprue’s own FireAngel and SONA branded Wi-Safe 2 enabled products, connected to the internet via a small gateway plugged into a hub via an Ethernet cable.  Sprue’s products store unique diagnostic information which is sent over the internet to a laptop or smart phone where a personalised dashboard provides instant alerts to the user.

 Sprue said networks were easily scalable and could be expanded by adding additional devices.

Graham Whitworth, executive chairman, said: “Wi-Safe Connect provides customers with significant cost savings from being able to remotely monitor installed networks of products rather than having to physically inspect alarms annually during the 10-year life. 

“This new product proposition moves Sprue into the connected homes market for the first time and I am delighted to hear such positive customer feedback following the show.”