About us!

About Axel Thoms

Dave Howatson is the UK Operations Director of Axel Thoms, so how did it all start?
“In 2001 whilst working for a Home Office contract as operations manager I was involved in a major fire, in fact one of the largest UK had seen for a long time. During the fire a team of 16 including myself, all had basic fire training, were tasked in going into a burning building and evacuating men, women and children. We did this many times until we were sure that all were out.

At the time we thought nothing of it, but it was not a good place to be. Fire, smoke and gasses have an immediate effect even on buildings that you know really well. I had been with the building since construction, however that night it was easy to get lost and overpowered, fire is an exceptional selfish killer”
“That night really gave me the insight to how fast things get out of control, the building was fully destroyed”.

So what is your Focus?
AT Axel Thoms UK we are looking to provide a bespoke rapid escape system that is covered by strict safety measures and that can be easily used, at the same time we want to provide a Turn Key solution offering products, which are affordable, easy to install and are user friendly. We will source products for residential and commercial. All products will be life saving products.

It is important to us that all equipment is manufactured to high standards and is officially certified to British Standards. Many products on the market are very affordable and very misleading. All we will say on the matter is that we have researched and will only provide access to products we can trust and in most cases use in our own environments.
In a nutshell, you may pay more for safety products from Europe, but believe me it’s worth it!