Terrorists blocked by British innovation

The maker of anti-terrorist bollards that protect buildings from vehicles and explosions has been named Britain’s most innovative company.

“A single bollard annihilates the engine and smashes the cabin,” explained director Marcus Gerrard. “It’s ferocious.”

The anti-terrorism business is booming. In the wake of 9/11 and the blazing car at Glasgow airport, organisations across the world are investing in smart innovations to stop terrorist vehicles in their tracks.

Coventry-based Safetyflex Barriers is at the forefront of this new wave of technology. At the National Business Awards on Tuesday, the company received the Innovation award for its cutting edge anti-terrorist devices, which can stop an 18-tonne truck driving at 80mph.

“A single bollard annihilates the engine and smashes the cabin,” explained director Marcus Gerrard. “It’s ferocious.”

Safetyflex is fast becoming a world leader in anti-terrorist bollards. It has re-engineered the technology patented by parent company GME Springs, which manufactures steel suspension technology for commercial vehicles, to create a spring steel bollard that is cheaper, more effective and easier to install than any other unit on the market.

“Spring steel is not something you can buy off the shelf,” explained Mr Gerrard. “It’s our own chemical composition. Myself and my father designed that formula. The thing about spring steel is that it can bend. No other bollard can do that.”

There are currently 12 international patents in place protecting the Gerrards’ design. “We’re educating the rest of the world about anti-terrorist products,” he said. “America and the Middle East have nothing on the Brits.”

“Five years ago, companies were using steel tubes that were up to 500ml in diameter and installing them two metres into the ground,” he added. “These cost £3,000 each. Our special steel bollards are only 100ml wide, go just 200mm into the ground and cost £300. The people who tested the product had never seen anything like it. It can cut a truck in two.”

Just two years ago, Safetyflex was a tiny sideline for GME, turning over just £55,000. Then the company won a contract to supply 22 venues at the London 2012 Olympics.

This year, there are two projects worth £40m in the pipeline. Military defence organisations, Kuwaiti oil companies and shopping centre developers alike are negotiating for thousands of units. “We currently have 160 live projects on the go in the UK,” said Mr Gerrard.

“When we speak to huge oil companies and they are looking for 32km of my products, that’s a whole lot of zeroes.”

Safetyflex is on target to become the world leader in hostile vehicle mitigation, he added. “There are some big players in the business with multi-million pound turnovers, both in the US and UK, but they don’t have anything like we have. We’ve shaken the market.”

“The spring steel business is steady but the anti-terrorist market is mind blowing.”

Mr Gerrard picked up the gong for innovation at a gala dinner at Grosvenor House, Park Lane. The judges praised the unassuming design of the product, which allows the bollards to be hidden in doors, bushes and even bins.

The judging panel, which included Telegraph business editor Tim Jotischky, also named Warwick Music as an innovator of the future. The company, which is a global provider of brass and wind sheet music, also invented the world’s first plastic trombone.

The pBone is a fully functional musical instrument which plays and sounds as good as a normal brass trombone but is less than half the weight of a brass instrument. “It is transforming the music space,” they said.