THE AF-X FIREBLOCKER STORY AF-X Fireblocker is arguably the world’s most innovative fire fighter. It simply blocks fire without using any water, thus saving the environment and preventing a lot of damage to goods and businesses. Although AF-X Fireblocker now has a significant market position in the worldwide market of aerosol fire-fighting, success wasn’t instant. The start of the AF-X story The AF-X story began in 2009. Two former Heineken managers were cruising the Amsterdam canals when they started talking about their next career move. They named a few keywords that were important to them, such as innovation, social relevance, sustainability and scalability. When they had compiled and tweaked their wish list, they threw it at everyone in their network and asked if someone knew of a business that would meet their requirements. After driving around like crazy and meeting with people for coffee till their blood turned black, the pair eventually took shares in a firefighting company that imported aerosol firefighting generators for the Benelux. Growing the import-business in the Benelux The AF-X import business of aerosol firefighting systems grew for three consecutive years. Unfortunately, the brand owners didn’t want to invest in innovation or in new product-market combinations as much as the people of AF-X deemed necessary and the relationship soured. Building their own company All the ideas for improvement were put to Dutch knowledge institutes such as KIWA, TNO and TU Delft. This resulted in a far better and new recipe for the aerosol firefighting compound. In 2012 the new recipe was patented, and AF-X started to look for a production partner that would fit the excellent recipe. After a long and hard R&D process, Aerospace Propulsion Product BV, part of the Ariane Group (a joint venture of Safran and Airbus), managed to produce the highly improved and innovative AF-X Fireblocker products. Of course, it all took much longer and cost way more than projected, but the result exceeded all expectations! Fresh Branding in a traditional segment After the product finally met our quality standards, the innovation had to find its way to the market. AF-X had to come up with a different angle to get awareness and to promote its superior products. AF-X had to find a way to stand out, making a clear statement differentiating from all the other firefighting companies in the rather traditional and conservative firefighting environment. The AF-X founders and executives struggled a long time over wording of the key brand values. During the process they realized that the word NO is quite crucial in everything related to fire: You want to have No fire in the first place, and No damage and No pollution, and certainly No victims or casualties if a fire does occur. On top of that, you want to have No high bills, No difficult installation process and No hassle. To offer all this, we use No water. Today the key values that drive the company forward are: Quality: AF-X innovates where possible. Improving product performance, creating new product-market combinations and improving ease of use. Communication: AF-X communicates differently: it’s the only company in the market that doesn’t use the color red. It is a transparent company: honest and open about everything it does and a continuous open exchange with its distributors worldwide. AF-X consists of nice people, it is fun to do business with them. Environment: AF-X doesn’t use water and therefore they are cleaner and safer. Safety: AF-X is fully certified according to US (UL), European (EN) and worldwide (ISO) standards. It makes use of internationally respected installation companies as well as renowned companies for peripheral equipment (e.g. Siemens, Kentec). AF-X even offers fire insurance policies. What’s next? AF-X is now breaking through and expanding fast with new distributors all over the world. With its new and innovative extinguishing technique AF-X Fireblocker is breaking their way in the traditional water-based firefighting industry by supplying a better product, offering better service, building new communities, and by getting people enthusiastic about the effectiveness and environmental-friendliness of its products. Should you wish to know more about us and/or our products, please visit our website www.afxfiresolutions.com or get in touch with us through info@af-x.com, or +31202050484.