Elvey’s appointment as a national distributor for the Technoswitch range of fire detection and suppression technology forms part of the company’s strategic plan to supplement its security offering with high-quality fire products.

Tasha Smith, head of Product and Marketing at Elvey Security Technologies, says: “Elvey’s goal was to identify and secure a beneficial relationship with a reputable local fire solutions technology provider. Not only have we achieved this, but Technoswitch is an extremely strong brand whose business culture is closely aligned with that of the Elvey Group in terms of technical support and product training.”

Smith says that, while Technoswitch will continue to sell to and directly support their existing customer base, the Elvey team will become a natural extension of the Technoswitch sales team. “We have an extensive footprint in South Africa and Technoswitch will benefit from increased penetration into the market through our sales force in our nationwide branches. In addition, we will be able to offer Technoswitch customers technical support and training in these regions. This will be supplemented by holding selected stock at branch level to provide an additional level of convenience for customers.”

Brett Birch, General Manager at Technoswitch, says the company is very excited about the partnership. “Both our companies have built up strong and trusted businesses over many years and we are both comfortable with the process of introducing new products to the market. Elvey is a superb distributor with a very experienced and competent staff complement. Technoswitch currently has only three branches and a number of sub Saharan Africa distributorships, so the access to Elvey’s broader number and variety of customers is a major benefit for us.”

Birch says that for many years Technoswitch focused predominantly on fire detection technology, but the company now also offers fire suppression solutions. “We prefer to concentrate our efforts on a niche technology solution offering and for this reason we have not tried to supplement our fire products with other security technology.”

This factor, says Smith is one of the driving forces behind the partnership with Technoswitch. “Elvey has a comprehensive portfolio of security solutions and the addition of the Technoswitch brand to our basket of products is highly beneficial to both parties.”

Birch concurs and says that the Technoswitch team will be working closely with Elvey’s team to develop solutions for the company’s customers. “Fire monitoring and integration with other security solutions is becoming increasingly important for end users. We have a proven track record in integrating our fire detection solutions into different building management systems and look forward to developing this even further with Elvey.

A schedule of upskilling the Elvey team is currently being compiled that will ensure our sales engineers onboard the knowledge to provide the necessary support to Technoswitch customers. In addition, Technoswitch will provide customers with access to its online learning portal to ensure product familiarity.