Cover Story – W.S. Darley

Fire Buyer Editor, Rebecca Spayne sits down with Ryan Darley, International Sales Manager, W.S Darley to find out about their latest partnership 

As a family run business, what sets W.S Darley apart from its competitors?   

Care for our customers, a love of the industries we serve and ultimately, the quality of our products. We build pumps and products designed to last for a long time. We genuinely care about the products we make and the people they serve. Many of our competitors are profit-centric and build obsolescence into their pumps. We have a 100-year approach and aim to build customers for life.  

How do you ensure innovation in your products?  

Every strategic meeting or discussion we have is centred around the future and what’s next. If you focus on today and what’s working now you won’t see or be part of paradigm shifts that are the future. We aim to implement smart technology, robotics, new materials and a better “mouse trap” with everything we sell or manufacture.  

You have recently partnered with an EN pump manufacturer, could you tell us more about this? 

We are teaming up with another family-owned business who shares a lot of our core values. They make a complete line up of CE-compliant and EN-certified pumps and fluid handling products which fill a gap in Darley’s portfolio. Most of the time our products are superior in performance and functionality to EN/CE products but lack the design characteristics to meet specifications. This partnership provides our sales team with a strong additional offering for the thousands of customers in our portfolio. Over time we aim to refine products, implement partnered designs and have the capability to manufacture more of our own components that support pump business around the world. Together we will form new partnerships, create new products and deliver the highest quality pumps in the world.  

How does the ability to sell EN regulated pumps into Europe impact the future landscape of the W.S Darley brand? 

Many of the European OEMs manufacture their own pumps so Europe is a difficult market for us. We aim to create new partnerships and would like to work with European OEMs but understand the desire to support their own business lines. For those fire truck manufacturers who are willing to leave the manufacturing of the pump (The HEART of the fire truck) to the experts at Darley, we look forward to developing new business in Europe and around the world.  

Interschutz hasn’t been held for 7 years, what themes are you expecting to see present at the show?  

Smart technology, self-monitoring systems, products designed for electric vehicle fires, robotics, drones… The future of firefighting will be showcased; whether the products are market ready is the question. The fire industry is slow to adopt new technology and it often takes a long time for customers to accept new products and ways of doing business. 

Rebecca Morpeth Spayne,
Editor, International Fire Buyer
Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922
Email: [email protected]