Going forward in 2015

2014 was a great year of growth in international enquiries and exports for Spectrum Healthcare UK Ltd and we had our best year to date in Ireland, USA and the Czech Republic. We also received some very promising enquiries from various countries in the Middle East, in particular Saudi Arabia, many of which should come to fruition in 2015.

The key factors in our overseas success are as the result of evacuation legislation around the world appearing to be coming into line with existing UK and Irish legislation, as well as the ongoing support that we receive from organisations such as UK Trade & Investment and Medilink. We also attended overseas exhibitions such as Arab Health in Dubai and RehaCare in Duesseldorf to increase our international profile.

We are firmly of the belief that UK and Irish fire legislation will continue to spread around the world over the coming years and we would therefore like to have expanded our presence around the world, in advance of this happening to be in the best position to benefit from business, in the medium to long term.

Our Moving and Handling team have been working hard throughout the year, providing onsite demonstrations and product training across the whole of the UK – a service which we are very proud to provide, as many of our competitors do not have this facility.

In April 2014 we achieved ISO 9001 Quality Management Certification, in line with our commitment towards providing a high level of customer satisfaction and continue to implement these standards, to guarantee top quality systems and services for the benefit of our suppliers and customers.

2014 was another year of innovation and expansion for us with the launch of new devices such as the Evac-E-Pad, Ski Slide Pad and the EMS Bariatric Evacmat, along with other additions to our product range such as the Frisbuoy and OneLeg.

Our continued close working relationship with emergency services and healthcare professionals enables us to develop new evacuation products – which cater for all types of individuals including patients or residents with special or complex care needs.

Going forward into 2015, we are working with the NHS to develop two further products, which are currently subject to a confidentiality agreement and we hope that these will result in further extensions to our product range later in the year.

We are always interested in hearing ideas and views on better ways of providing evacuation or moving and handling solutions and we are happy to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect intellectual property rights.