Celebrates 50 Years in Business

T. & J. Fire Ltd was founded in 1973 by a father and son duo, Trefor and John Rees. Both worked in Welwyn Garden City for Minimax selling fire extinguishers when Trefor proposed that they started up their own business. So T. & J. Fire named after Trefor & John was born and has very proudly been based within the Welwyn and Hatfield borough for the whole 50 years.

It was a family affair from the beginning with Trefor’s wife Mary in the office (which was the front bedroom in their house in Daniels, with the garage being used to store the extinguishers) and three years later in 1976 John’s wife Janet also joined the business officially. Very quickly they progressed to get FETA (Fire Extinguisher Trades Association) qualified, at the time, the industry’s mark of excellence.

T. & J. Fire quickly won and signed up many of the large local businesses including Welwyn Hatfield Council, the original QEII Hospital, Welwyn Department Stores, Shredded Wheat, Polycel, Advels, Roche, Nortons, British Aerospace and British Lead Mills (that’s a trip back in time for those old enough to remember these local iconic businesses but we still proudly include Welwyn Hatfield Council, Roche and British Lead Mills as customers).

In response to requests from clients, in the late 1980s the company expanded to include fire alarms and emergency light servicing, again full accreditations were sought, and the customer base grew with many moving their fire alarm servicing over including an early adopter of St Albans District Council.

In the early 2000’s, John and Janet’s children, Natalie and Gavin both joined the business with Natalie leaving a career in nursing and Gavin a career in marketing. It was intended that John and Janet would retire after imparting all their knowledge and wisdom – although now enjoying their well earned retirement they are still a valuable resource to the business and regularly visit the offices.

Once Natalie and Gavin were established, they saw the opportunity to expand the security side of the business, utilising the existing goodwill of the long established customer base. The decision was taken to rebrand the business to T. J. Fire & Security to better reflect the services offered, however the existing logo of the interlocking T & J initials remain to this day.

In 2019 T. J. Fire & Security acquired Prompt Fire Protection also based in Welwyn Garden City to further strengthen its local business base. The company continue to look for more acquisitions.

To date T. J. Fire & Security provide a full array of services including install, PPM and call-outs across fire extinguishers, fire alarms, intruder alarms, CCTV, access control and fire door maintenance in both the commercial and domestic markets.

We are really proud to be a local company supporting local business including Welwyn Hatfield Council, St Albans District Council, University of Hertfordshire, McMullens, Simmons, Hatfield House, The Galleria and the Hertfordshire NHS, we are also pleased to support contracts further afield including Britvic, Brita Water, English Heritage and Milton Keynes Council.

As the company looks back over its 50 year history we also look forward to the next 50 years and the technological advancements that will improve our industry. We would like to thank all past and current customers and all valuable staff members who have contributed to our 50 years of success and look forward welcoming many new customers.

Those things can help but the fact is that negotiation skills can be learned. And the real secret to a successful negotiation is preparation. A well-prepared but inexperienced negotiator can achieve a better outcome than a more experienced counterpart who is ill-prepared.

Q Be selective about whom you negotiate with

AThere is no point in wasting your energy negotiating with someone who lacks authority to make the crucial decision. Never go into an important negotiation without having confirmed in advance with whom you will be negotiating and, more importantly, that they have the authority to make a final decision (or, at the very least, that they can contact the ultimate decision-maker by telephone at the key point and that person is available and expecting to take their call).

Q Establish trust

A

Break the ice early in negotiation so that you can go on to establish mutual trust. Try to find mutual interests or common ground at the earliest stage. Meet face-to-face whenever possible and talk about sport, the weather, anything but the negotiation for the first few minutes. (Advance research on your negotiating counterpart will pay off here: if their website profile says they support a team, be ready briefly to discuss the results of the team’s last match.) Research shows that negotiators who engaged in ‘small talk’ before a negotiation increased successful outcomes fourfold over those who went directly into negotiation.

Q Know your alternatives to settlement

A Never negotiate without knowing your realistic and Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). If you don’t know what you will do if you don’t reach agreement, you can’t know whether or not to accept an offer that is made in the negotiation.

Q Discredit your counterpart’s settlement alternatives

A Try also to work out in advance what you think the other side’s BATNA is and then set about making that look less certain or attractive. BATNA-bashing can be highly effective. Recognise when it is being done to you in a negotiation.

Q Change the players if the negotiation stalls

A If the negotiation stalls and all else fails, withdraw from the negotiation and substitute a colleague in your place. Try to get the other side to do the same. New people will come to the matter fresh and can revitalise discussions where others have failed to build rapport or the discussion has stagnated.

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John Wiblin received training in advanced negotiation at the Harvard Negotiation Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is experienced in negotiating business disputes. He is also an accredited civil and commercial mediator.