Fire Fighter’s Mission of Fireproofing

Fire Fighter Industry Sdn. Bhd. was established in 1974 by Mr. Jeffrey Soo, with the goal of making fire safety more accessible to the public and fireproofing Malaysia through its products and services. As one of the oldest fire safety companies in Malaysia, Fire Fighter is a one stop center for all things fire safety.

Apart from being one of the few approved manufacturers of fire extinguishers in Malaysia, Fire Fighter also designs, installs and maintains full-fledged fire protection systems for businesses.

Focus on certification and quality

In 1994, Michelle Hah joined the company as Executive Director. With close to 20 years in the real estate industry, Michelle brought in her knowledge from the corporate world to a thriving small and medium enterprise (SME). Her contributions led to Fire Fighter being the first company to achieve both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 for fire protection systems.

Jeffrey Soo recalled, “We started as a trading company, where we focused on all things fire safety. Over time, we realised that we were selling a significant amount of fire extinguishers to the public. Fire extinguishers are the most common required item when it comes to fire safety for businesses (and now consumers as well).

“In 1996, our first manufacturing plant was established in Subang Jaya, making us one of the few companies in Malaysia to manufacture fire extinguishers. By having our plant in Malaysia, it made communication and costing more efficient compared to having it situated outside of Malaysia. We also embarked on achieving our ISO certification. Dealing with safety products, we believe that it is important to have our processes documented and followed through stringent processes, so ISO helps the production team,” he said.

The Malaysian fire safety industry is heavily regulated, with products requiring certification by both SIRIM and Bomba to ensure that they work all the time, every time.

Innovating fire safety

In 2019, Brian Soo – a second generation member of the company’s ownership – joined Fire Fighter, and established an in-house Innovations Team that focuses on digitalisation as well as growth aspirations.

Brian brought with him his years of experience working in Silicon Valley, the technology capital of the world to his family-owned business. Since then, Fire Fighter has been the leading fire safety company in the digital space – being the first company in Malaysia to sell fire safety equipment and services online.

On the branding side, Fire Fighter has collaborated with e-hailing companies, acted as the Official Fire Safety Company for the Sepang International Circuit, thereby solidifying its position as the leading consumer-facing fire safety company in Malaysia.

With Brian’s addition, the company’s mission of fireproofing Malaysia has become more attainable with the introduction of innovative marketing strategies, including a larger presence on social media platforms.

Today, Fire Fighter boasts more than four million views on Tik Tok, and is the most followed and most reviewed fire safety company in Malaysia on all social media platforms.

Market expansion, industry ties

Recently, Fire Fighter completed the installation of a fire protection system for a data centre in Cyberjaya. With its current initiative to push for Industry 4.0 in factories, the company is looking to expand its market presence to the rest of the Southeast Asia region.

The company’s ownership is also recognisable faces among the movers and shakers of Malaysia’s manufacturing industry. Michelle Hah is the current chairperson of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM)’s for Selangor chapter, while Brian Soo is the Youth Chairperson for FMM Headquarters.

Fire Fighter is thus well aware of the technological advances within the manufacturing industry, and is currently investing heavily in digitalisation via Industry 4.0 technologies as well as customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) softwares in the company. These technologies will increase the efficiencies throughout Fire Fighter’s operations, to enable it to handle the growing list of customers from their marketing efforts.

Fire Fighter also aims to upskill its current and future workforce to focus on higher technology ventures, Brian Soo said.

“We believe that investments within the company should not be focused only on one aspect but should be multifaceted. Software is as important as hardware, and talent is as important as technology in today’s world”.

“With the help of MIDA, we are in the midst of the Industry4Wrd initiative to convert our current manufacturing plant to implement Industry 4.0 technologies. With this, we are able to move towards smart manufacturing which helps increase our total production output significantly. Communication between our manufacturing plant with our headquarters in Petaling Jaya will also be expected to increase with the implementation of live dashboards and Internet of Things devices”.

“Being in FMM, we believe that MIDA’s efforts have helped not just us but the manufacturing industry as a whole to push Malaysian manufacturers to be more competitive in the region,” Brian Soo said.