Industry News 5/16

HME, Inc. has finalized the acquisition of the Ahrens-Fox brand name. Since 2000 HME has licensed the use of the Ahrens-Fox brand for its fire apparatus products. The acquisition of the Ahrens-Fox brand provides HME with complete ownership and licensing of the Ahrens-Fox name, logo, symbols, assets, parts and documents.

“The licensing of the Ahrens-Fox brand, by HME paid tribute to a great American Fire Truck Manufacturer,” said VP, Engineering Ken Lenz. “Ahrens-Fox represented an iconic fire apparatus manufacturer that was renowned for its innovations and the superior quality of its fire trucks. The final and complete acquisition of the Ahrens-Fox brand assures the preservation of this great fire industry treasure, as well as a continuation of its legacy of innovation.

“At HME we are dedicated to living up to the Ahrens-Fox legacy by striving to build smarter and better performing fire apparatus,” said Lenz. “Our recent move to total vertical integration of all of manufacturing process in the last year has given us the ability to quickly incorporate new innovations and technologies. We really are building ‘smarter’ fire apparatus on a daily basis.”

HURST Jaws of Life, Inc. has promoted Christopher Jaques from HURST general manager to president of rescue for IDEX Corporation. In the new role, Jaques will continue to lead HURST, but will also oversee the LUKAS and Vetter businesses.

“This is a very well-deserved next step for Chris in his tenure at IDEX,” said Uwe Kirchner, president, fire and rescue for IDEX Corporation. “With almost twenty years’ experience across several of our business units, Chris is an invaluable asset to our team. We can’t wait to see what we will accomplish in this new role.”

Jaques began his career at IDEX as a product engineer for Gast Manufacturing, then served as the director of product management for JUN-AIR International. After seven years at JUN-AIR, Jaques returned to Gast as its vice president of operations, and for the past three years, he’s been general manager for HURST Jaws of Life.

Oshkosh Airport Products has delivered and placed its 300th new generation Oshkosh Striker aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) vehicle into service at Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec, Canada. The delivery included a Striker 6 x 6 equipped with the innovative Snozzle high-reach extendable turret (HRET).

“This 300th new generation Oshkosh Striker vehicle represents an important milestone; we’re really proud to have these apparatus on duty at Québec City International, which is, incidentally, a new Oshkosh ARFF customer,” said Jeff Resch, Oshkosh Airport Products Group vice president and general manager.

“Our overriding objectives are safety and to provide firefighters with the best possible equipment on the market,” said Serge St-Laurent, vice-president operations at Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport. “We had to renew our ARFF fleet and the Striker was the very best option.”

Jeff Koledo has been named national sales manager at Fire-Dex. Koledo joined the team in August of 2006 as a regional sales manager for the T60 territory and was promoted to senior regional sales manager in October of 2010. The Fire-Dex sales team will now report to Koledo with this current advancement.

"Jeff has a natural ability to be a tremendous mentor and coach. The Fire-Dex sales team will grow quickly under his leadership," said Steve Allison, VP of Sales and Marketing.

Waldorf College has officially become Waldorf University.

“This is an exciting and important milestone for everybody linked to Waldorf,” said Waldorf President Robert Alsop. “We are honoring our school’s rich history with a new position for which everyone associated with Waldorf can be proud. With the success of our graduate program and the diversity of academic offerings, we felt the title university best represents who we are and who we strive to be.”

A year-long process with selected marketing partner Flynn Wright helped shape the new campaign—“We Are Warriors”—a rally for the school that will be integrated in everything from campus signage to recruitment to athletic commitments and all marketing and communication.

“Tradition, passion, community and success are the four pillars that, through our collaborative process, we determined are at the core of Waldorf,” said Waldorf Trustee Robert Mayes. “The formal evolution from a college to a university helps us with that alignment within higher education and gives Waldorf the status it deserves.”

Smeal Fire Apparatus Co. has awarded United Plastic Fabricating, Inc. (UPF) its first annual Supplier of the Year award. UPF is based in North Andover, MA, and supplies high-impact polypropylene water and foam tanks. The awards ceremony was held at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, NE. Joseph Lingel, president and chief executive officer of UPF, accepted the award on behalf of UPF.

“Our suppliers are exceptional and we value them as a critical part of our efforts to serve our customers,” said Smeal President Mark Huber.  “We congratulate United Plastic Fabricating as our first recipient of this award.”

TheFireStore is now an authorized MSA distributor to over 600 fire departments in the state of Virginia. The territorial expansion in Virginia serves to strengthen the long-standing allegiance between TheFireStore and MSA that goes back to 2004.

This move closely follows TheFireStore having been awarded sole MSA distributorship for the state of New Jersey, a territorial increase that expanded the number of sales representatives in the region and allowed TheFireStore to increase its service department staff and capabilities.

“Continuing to expand our partnership with additional territory is a great opportunity for not only TheFireStore and MSA, but also the customers we serve,” said TheFireStore’s Chief Executive Officer, James Witmer. “We’ve been serving the greater state of Virginia out of our Richmond location, with life-saving gear from so many great manufacturers. We’re looking forward to adding MSA’s high-quality SCBA, thermal imaging cameras and gas detection meters to our Virginia offering.”