News | Hochiki

Hochiki Will Be Exhibiting At The Bulgarian Security Summit

Admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:20:51 GMT

Hochiki Europe will be exhibiting at Bulgarian Security Summit 2026 from the 28th - 10th October 2026.

Best Active Fire Product Winner | Intersec 2026

Admin — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:00:00 GMT

The Intersec Awards took place on 13th January 2026 and Hochiki is delighted to announce that they have won the award for “Best Active Fire Safety Product” for their ACD Multi-Sensor with CO. The award was accepted on behalf of Hochiki by Mr Uozumi from Hochiki Cooperation, Subin Suhas from Hochiki Middle East, and Nick Porter from Hochiki Australia.

Hochiki Middle East has been recognised at the prestigious Intersec Awards in Dubai, winning Best Active Fire Safety Product for its ACD Multi-Sensor with CO, reaffirming the company's commitment to innovation and life safety excellence.

The award-winning ACD Multi-Sensor with CO combines advanced smoke and carbon monoxide detection technologies to deliver faster, more reliable fire detection while significantly reducing false alarms. Designed to perform in a wide range of challenging environments, the solution reflects Hochiki's continued investment in intelligent, high-performance fire safety systems.

Commenting on the achievement, Subin Suhas, Senior Sales Manager at Hochiki Middle East, said:

"This award is a proud moment for our entire team. The ACD Multi-Sensor with CO is the result of close collaboration with our partners and customers, and it addresses the real-world challenges faced by the fire safety industry. Being recognised at Intersec reinforces our commitment to delivering reliable, future-ready solutions to the region."

Shinsuke Kubo, Managing Director of Hochiki Middle East, added:

"Winning at the Intersec Awards is a significant milestone for Hochiki Middle East and the wider Hochiki Group. It reflects not only the strength of our technology, but our global commitment to advancing life safety through innovation, rigorous engineering and long-term customer trust. We are honoured to stand alongside the industry's leading brands."

The Intersec Awards celebrate excellence and innovation across the global safety, security and fire protection industries, making this win a notable achievement for Hochiki Middle East and its growing portfolio of advanced fire detection solutions.

Hochiki Europe Appoints Gareth Roberts as Sales Manager

Admin — Thu, 08 May 2025 10:00:00 GMT

Hochiki Europe, a leading manufacturer of innovative life safety solutions, is delighted to announce the appointment of Gareth Roberts as its new Channel Sales Manager. Gareth brings over a decade of invaluable experience within the fire industry, complemented by a significant background in manufacturing and distribution, making him a strong asset to the Hochiki Europe team.

Gareth joins Hochiki Europe from ADI, a valued distribution partner, where he demonstrated a remarkable trajectory. Starting his career as a graduate working within the warehouse, Gareth’s dedication and aptitude saw him progress through technical support roles to ultimately become a Category Manager. This comprehensive understanding of the distribution channel, from the ground up, provides him with a unique perspective on the needs and challenges faced by Hochiki’s partners.

Prior to his tenure in the fire industry, Gareth also gained valuable experience within IT distribution, further broadening his understanding of diverse market dynamics and channel strategies.

A passionate advocate for strong customer relations, Gareth is committed to empowering Hochiki’s partners through education and collaboration. He firmly believes in ensuring customers possess a thorough understanding of the product portfolio, unlocking greater opportunities for their businesses and fostering truly holistic partnerships.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Gareth is a self-proclaimed “Excel data nerd,” highlighting his analytical skills and detail-oriented approach. He is also a dedicated family man and has recently discovered a passion for strength training.

Hailing from the foothills of the South Pennines in Rochdale, Gareth’s diverse background and customer-centric approach align perfectly with Hochiki Europe’s commitment to providing exceptional products and unparalleled support to its channel partners.

Nathan Hudson, Sales and Marketing Director commented:

“We are thrilled to welcome Gareth to Hochiki Europe. His extensive experience within the fire industry, particularly his understanding of the distribution landscape from his time at ADI, will be instrumental in strengthening our channel relationships and driving mutual growth. Gareth’s passion for customer education and partnership development resonates strongly with our values, and we are confident he will make a significant contribution to our team.”

Gareth is eager to embark on this new chapter and contribute to Hochiki Europe’s continued success within the life safety market.

Hochiki Launches UL268 7th Edition-Compliant Detectors

Admin — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:00 GMT

Hochiki Europe, the global leader in life safety solutions, is proud to introduce an unparalleled generation of UL listed smoke detectors now available for installation projects across any region that requires UL approval. Specifically designed to achieve compliance with the rigorous UL268 7th Edition standards, Hochiki's range of innovative 7th edition products fill a crucial gap for conventional applications to meet the UL standard.

UL-268 7th Edition Standard

The UL-268 7th Edition Standard dictates fire detector performance for detector manufacturers and was due to come into effect in 2021, forcing the design and manufacturing of smoke and multi-criteria to adhere to the stricter guidelines. This new standard only affects the manufacture of detectors, older edition detectors are still available to specify, purchase and install by fire system installers, all the while stocks exist.

But following various delays within the industry, the 7^th edition of the standard is now due to come into force July 2024 and one of the most significant changes is the newly developed multi-spectrum smoke categorization required to now detect smouldering and flaming fires fuelled specifically by polyurethane furniture foam and burning meat, whilst at the same time, reducing nuisance alarms. All manufacturers therefore have been forced to develop a range of new products to meet this new standard.

Conventional fire detection systems are particularly suited to projects such as small retail units, simple structures like workshops and storage units as well as health clinics and small educational facilities for example.

Hochiki's UL 7th Edition Conventional Detectors

Hochiki conventional products are already renowned for their reliability in reducing false alarms, and their new range of 7^th edition conventional detectors continues to evidence these benefits, with the range including the company’s first conventional multi-sensor detector. This unique conventional multi-sensor optical smoke and heat detector (SOE-24H), along with a conventional optical smoke detector (SOE-24V), are already being specified in a host of projects across the Middle East.

Hochiki Europe Unveils Refurbished Training Room & Online Courses

Admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 11:00:00 GMT

The new state of the art classroom is located at Hochiki Europe’s head office in Gillingham and is a key asset in the organisation’s vision to provide world class training in the life safety industry.

The new training centre will cater for businesses and system partners who want to ensure their employees stay at the forefront of fire safety, allowing companies to send individuals or whole teams to attend life safety courses at the new educational facility.

A range of application-led educational content can now be delivered via both online modules and practical face-to-face sessions, either at customer premises or at the brand new classroom. All the resources and course content has been compiled by Hochiki’s team of highly experienced training facilitators, who also deliver the face-to-face courses.

Remote product and systems training is also possible via the new training centre’s large interactive screen which includes an integrated web cam, allowing customers further afield to benefit from the Hochiki team's expertise.

Within the classroom, engineers will learn at individual workstations which feature working versions of Hochiki’s market leading life safety system, Latitude, along with two loops of devices. The product boards at each station have also been designed to be able to be swapped out, depending on the course the engineer is attending – for example fire detection, emergency lighting or hybrid wireless.

Speaking about the launch of the new classroom and online courses, Nathan Hudson, Hochiki’s Sales and Marketing Director said:

“We are committed to ensuring the world is a safer place to live and work in, this goes way beyond designing and selling our own industry leading life safety products. We understand how important ongoing training is to enable our customers to be commercially successful and for their employees to be the best they can be. That’s why we are really excited about launching this new training facility here at our European head office, we are looking forward to welcoming the first cohort through the doors.”

To find out more about Hochiki’s training offering contact your local Hochiki Regional Sales Manager.

Hochiki Europe Invests in People for Enhanced Customer Service

Admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 10:00:00 GMT

Mr Shinsuke Kubo, Hochiki’s Managing Director for the Middle East operation based out of Dubai, has been recognised by both customers and the business’ internal teams as a shining light when it comes to customer experience. With his extensive knowledge of both the Hochiki product and the fire industry, he will now take up the role of Commercial Director for Hochiki Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. This new role will be based out of the UK head office in Gillingham with regular visits to the Middle East, where Kubo will continue to play a key role in the strategic development of this region and remain as a board Director.

Using his vast experience of the market, in this new role, Kubo will be focused on leading the product management team to develop the company's road map to ensure it meets the needs of customers. With a desire for an efficient operation, he has already set up his key team with David Brown as Product Manager and Robert Head as Commercial Product Manager, who between them bring over 40 years' experience of working with Hochiki and within fire safety.

A crucial element to this new role and indeed the team will be the close working partnership between them and the teams in Japan and of course the Research and Development arm of the business. The constant feedback between customers, Japan and R&D teams will enable Kubo to realise his ambition to take Hochiki to the next level for its customers.

“I have enjoyed a fantastic career with Hochiki for the last 28 years (Japan 17 years, US 7 years and Dubai 4 years) and have gained experience of the industry and our customers across the globe, so I am excited to start here in the UK. My focus will be on learning more about the market here in the UK and across Europe, including exports, in more detail and I’m looking forward to meeting with our customers to learn directly from them on how we can improve our products and services, that customer insight is what drives everything we do here at Hochiki”

Both Graham Lowe, Hochiki Europe’s Managing Director and Kubo’s priority throughout this transition and beyond is to ensure that customers continue to receive the absolute best service and products from Hochiki, therefore Shahab Anjum Head of Sales Middle East and his team will continue to support in developing Hochiki’s sales within the region.

In addition to the excellent service that the commercial team deliver and as part the business’ continued commitment to investment in the region a brand-new role of ‘Country Manager Middle East,’ has been created. With the interviewing process underway, this role will be dedicated to supporting and growing the region.

Hochiki Europe is committed to ensuring the best people are in place in order to deliver the best life safety technology and customer experience. Kubo’s new role as Commercial Director is essential to driving the company vision forward.