Brand Legends are not made overnight. In fact, behind-the-scenes —- many a trial-and- tribulation and nail-biting putting-out-of-fire situations abound. Therefore, emerging from the fiery furnace of adversity and coming out smelling roses in being bestowed with the Branding Association of Malaysia’s Brand Legend Awards – 50 Years category is all-at-once is sweet victory for the very enterprising husband-and-wife team behind Fire Fighter Sdn Bhd. “We are very proud and honoured in receiving the Brand Legend Awards as it is a great recognition of all the blood, sweat and tears over the 50 years,” enthused Michelle Xia Meijuan, Executive Director of Fire Fighter Industry.

Venturing into this male-dominated industry founded by her husband in 1994 having worked for a developer for 18 years was not easy for her but this proved to be the right choice, given her knack for turning this into a happy business. Growing the team from 10 employees to a staff strength of 145 “fighting side-by-side”, the company prides itself on maintaining a high retention rate with many serving the company for over 30 years.

The secret to her, lies in ensuring her staff are happy by treating them like family which in turn, contributes to a happy business which sees long-time staff still working with them after 40 years. “Having a company is something like having a family. That family is of course, who we go home to but during the daytime, we spend time with our staff. So we have to take of them and we really treat them with sincerity to help each other grow. Of course, along the way they will be staff outgrowing us and there are staff that we will outgrow which is normal,” she shared.

In turn, her husband Jeffrey Soo, Founder of Fire Fighter quips: “I like to say, ‘Happy wife, happy life!’ We are husband-and-wife – life partners and partners-in-crime.

Receiving this recognition is testimony to the power of resilience of the husband-and-wife power couple. To him, the awards recognition affirms the company’s great team effort in upholding the mission of the company in preventing and fighting fires over the course of its 50 years journey. And, what an amazing half-a-century journey it has been for the company which was established 50 years ago in 1974 concentrating on the trading and servicing of fire extinguishers.

Transforming over the years has seen the company getting stronger with it now being a total solutions provider in the area of fire prevention and fire-fighting covering the total manufacturing of fire extinguishers and fire protection equipment as well as projects and systems maintenance.

To the couple’s credit, cold fire extinguishers and firefighting tools became versatile under them in which they also pioneered customisable fire extinguishers in 2021.

Emerging unscathed from the fiery furnace of the COVID-19 pandemic unscathed – with its mission and vision coupled with passion, hard work and a never-give-up mindset intact, the next gameplan is to “fireproof Malaysia” in the next 50 years as a family alongside their children joining them.

“Our generation is coming in with new ideas and vitality. We are also able to explore and collaborate with universities while venturing more into Research & Development to expand our product range,” said the proud father.

In addition to this, the company is also looking to expand into the global market since they have 50 years of solid experience backed by a strong and reliable brand which has been built over the years. Acknowledging the importance of branding as crucial since it lends the business sustainability, a strong brand they agree, strengthens confidence to the customers to come back again and again as word-of-mouth advertising is the “best marketing of all”.

Follow your passion and business will prosper

Besides the ability to think-out-of-the-box as well as getting creative and innovative, the pandemic highlighted the need to venture into new online business opportunities which the company never ventured into before – turning this Blue Ocean opportunity into making it the number one fire-fighting online company.

“I always believe that doing business is not on just going after the ‘money’ but it should be our passion that drives us besides doing and giving the best of our ability to do the job. After all, in ‘Safety’ business line which involves lives and properties, this is even more so. There is no room to cut corners as this can be a matter of life and death,” she shared in detail.

Thus, espousing not just quality but consistent quality is key. “We were ISO 9001 certified when we started manufacturing our fire extinguishers and equipment. We are also the first fire service company to embark and get certified in ISO 14001,” he elaborated. Acknowledging a wide gap in how the world has changed and pivoted from the time he first founded the business between the year in 1974 and now with technology changing the landscape of how business is done – the key to thriving now he affirmed is to adapt fast.

In closing, she opined that in order to be a Brand Legend, one has “to be sincere and honest, and must always deliver on one’s brand promise”. “And, your brand promise is not just talking about a name or a logo. It is a lot more – encompassing sincerity and good service which will constitute better relationship with the customer.,” she concluded.