Jardine Motors Group

A new £5 million car showroom in Tonbridge, Kent owned originally by the Jardine Motors Group (now Stratstone) is utilising Latitude – a state-of-the-art fire alarm control panel produced by leading life safety system manufacturer, Hochiki Europe.

The showroom, which showcases high-value Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, needed a state-of-the-art control and indication system which would link its various heat, flame and smoke detectors from around the space. The selected system, the innovative Latitude product from Hochiki Europe, was specified due to its ultra-reliability, flexibility, user friendliness and accessibility while still being able to fit in with the showroom’s sleek aesthetics.

Jardine Motors, founded in 1969 and acquired by Stratstone in 2024, comprises seventy locations across the UK that represent more than twenty different car manufacturers. Its prestigious showrooms embody the company’s ethos of investing in spaces which provide customers with high-end experiences.

The facilities management team at Jardine Motors have made use of the new addressable life safety platform, Latitude, to help protect its three floors of high-value space. As with all of Hochiki Europe’s products, Latitude is compliant with the highest European and global safety standards, including EN54-2, EN54-4 and EN54-13.

Hochiki Europe designed the panel to maximise usability and ease of operation so maintenance teams and duty managers can instantly locate safety breaches in real-time from any location. The product uses a full-colour touchscreen display which allows for clear and concise information to be displayed about each detection device within the showroom.

The product also has a 10,000 capacity event log, up to 144 zone indicators and can support up to 5,000 cause and effect entries.

To further support Jardine Motors, the Hochiki team worked closely with the facilities manager, Roger Dawkins, at the Tonbridge showroom, giving him a guided tour around its cutting-edge manufacturing plant in Gillingham as well as consultation on the final aesthetic design of the new system.

The modular nature of the control panel meant all field wiring could be connected to a passive motherboard; to which electronic hardware can be added and reconfigured without disconnecting older wiring. Consequently, there was little disruption to operations during installation meaning the showroom’s valuable merchandise was able to stay in place throughout and extensive renovations were avoided – speeding up the delivery time of the project.

Neil Eves, systems manager for Hochiki Europe, commented:

"After understanding requirements, we knew Latitude was the perfect solution. Operating from a 2-8 loop circuit it can support up to 2,000 zones, recording 10,000 incidents making it ideal for larger developments such as this. To demonstrate its capabilities and our unique manufacturing operations, we invited Roger down for a personal tour of the Hochiki Europe’s factory to show, first hand, our detailed production process for a wide variety of products".

After the installation, Roger Dawkins commented: 

"We were absolutely blown away with the professionalism and levels of support shown by Hochiki Europe; both of which were demonstrated from our tour of the manufacturing facility in Gillingham and their ongoing liaison. Having the chance to see the production and design process gave us reassurance in their ability to provide state-of-the-art life safety systems which would meet our needs as a business. This end-to-end support was a truly personalised experience, with Hochiki Europe even taking onboard our suggestions for improvements. Taking such an interest in our needs confirmed our decision in choosing them as our manufacturer and ultimately our trust in their products".

The group is currently exploring the roll out of Latitude across all its showrooms nationwide thanks to the initial success of its life safety protection in Kent.