Interface with Mrs. Sujal Sheth Director of NewAge Fire Fighting Co. Ltd.

NewAge was founded in the year of 1960 at Surendranagar, Gujarat and it has more than 5 decades of experience of manufacturing of various kinds of Fire Fighting Equipments and Fire Fighting Delivery Hoses. NewAge Group of Companies has the factories spread over 50,000 square meters at Surendranagar. It has its regional offices in Pune, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi, Vadodara, Kolkata and Bangalore. NewAge also sells its equipments through its efficient network of agents throughout India. NewAge has more than 55 years of experience in selling its products abroad as well and today it exports the products to 60 countries. Since its inception, NewAge has grown to become the only manufacturer in the subcontinent to provide the complete range of quality firefighting equipments starting from fire hoses, hydrants, water foam monitors, foam equipments to fire vehicles and is indisputably the leading manufacturer of these products. It is considered a benchmark in the fire industry due to its consistent and quality based principles.

NewAge Group has successfully acquired Jayshree Textiles —A Division of Indian Rayon Corporation, Aditya Birla Group in 2003 and Hose Division of one of the other international companies in the year of 2006 making NewAge Group, Asia’s largest production for the Fire Fighting Hoses with daily production capacity of 20,000 meters. NewAge Group of Companies are backward integrated and fully self-reliant for its production activities with own foundry and machine shop with daily casting capacity of 2,000 kilograms.

NewAge has been a regular supplier of approved and quality goods to sectors like Oil and Gas, Chemical and Fertilizer, Power Plants, Aviation Industry, Construction and Infrastructure, Port Trusts, Defense Establishments and other industries.The Group of Companies employs about 500 people. It is a regular recipient of Export Excellence Awards for exporting the products to countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait, Kenya, Myanmar, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium Greece, Canada, Ireland, United States of America, Canada, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and Philippines etc.

 Tell us something about company’s products range and turnkey solutions? How do you view India as a market for fire protection industry?

NewAge started from being a manufacturer of basic fire fighting equipments like Fire Hose and Landing Valves. Due to a vision to constantly innovate, bring out new solutions and raise the standard of the fire fighting industry, NewAge today leads the market in innovative and cost effective solutions. NewAge has one of the world’s largest manufacturing range including Fire Hose and Fire Trucks – the two extreme ends of manufacturing in Fire Fighting Industry.

India as a whole is a growing market for fire fighting industry. Laws for Fire Fighting and Safety are getting stricter day by and along with increase in awareness of the general public. This makes India a very potential market for business.

What do you think are the most pressing issues to be addressed in the fire sector?

Manufacturers in the fire fighting industry in India have great resources in terms of innovation and unique solutions for the users. However, unfortunately, the users still have a very little recognition of this fact. As in many developed countries, the users must call in the manufacturers to discuss issues they face while fighting fires or to improve the design and performance of the equipments according to the changing scenario of the fires. Not only will the industry grow and evolve due to this inputs from the users, but also the users will benefit from this exercise.

Unfortunately, the users’ mindset today is to pay more for an imported equipment rather than pay the same amount of money to an Indian manufacturer to provide a better solution. The thinking and the mindset that an Indian Manufacturer cannot match the quality of an imported equipment needs a huge change.

Making standardisation faster is a big topic. What can reasonably be achieved in terms of time and efficiency?
It is rightly said that “One does not need to invent a wheel”. Internationally, many countries have very high standards and norms in terms of design and performance parameters of the fire fighting equipment and fire vehicles.

Majority of these can be adopted in an Indian Standard and customizations can be made in specific areas where the need be. In this way, we can achieve a fair standardization in a timely manner.

What do you see as the next big thing in technology in the production industry?

The industry is moving from conventional methods of fire fighting to more technology based and information based approach to fire fighting. Use of High Tech Camera Systems, Robots, Thermal Imagers, Drones etc by the users shows a new evolving trend in the fire fighting industry. NewAge sees artificial intelligence as a next big change in the technology and approach for the industry.

We have seen many fires that are related to malfunctioning of Fire Safety equipment. What can manufacturers can do, on their part, to help reduce the chances of a fire?

The incidents and fires related to malfunctioning of fire do occur. However, in majority of the cases, the reason for failure is due to lack of maintenance, improper use, improper training, improper application and improper selection of the equipment for the incident. Under such circumstances, the onus lies on the users to ensure that no matter how good an equipment they buy, it must be properly maintained and used as per directions and instructions from the manufacturer.

Whenever a user buys a new equipment, emphasis must be laid on imparting training to the users, which unfortunately lacks many a times.

If the above points are taken care of, only a rare chance remains for the failure of the equipment during critical time.