A BULGING order book on the back of a 200 per cent increase in sales over the last 12 months is expected to make 2008 a highly successful year for a Welsh-based business that specialises in saving lives at work, rest and play.

Bovema/UK, which has its British headquarters in Cardiff, is one of the country’s fastest growing designer, manufacturer and installer of natural ventilation products and smoke control systems.

With a client list boasting blue-chip businesses like Jaguar, Redrow Homes, Kwiksave, GAP clothing, McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Villages and the executive apartment developers City Lofts, Bovema’s products and installations can be found in shopping centres, factories, warehouses, supermarkets, theatres, office blocks and housing developments right across Britain.

With a Dutch parent company that has been trading all over Europe for 25 years, Bovema moved its UK base to Cardiff a year ago this month and in that time has racked up more than £1.1m worth of business.

Three of its biggest orders has seen Bovema smoke and natural ventilation systems installed in the Jaguar car factory in Coventry, the Gap UK distribution centre at Northampton and the McArthur Glen designer outlet village at Livingstone in Scotland.

“The business has been operating in the UK for 10 years but the last two years has seen a period of rapid growth,” said Managing Director David Fitzpatrick. “In the last 12 months we created £1.1m worth of business – a record set of figures.

“Most large commercial buildings and residential apartment blocks have some form of smoke ventilation system which is hardly surprising when you consider that the biggest killer in any serious fire is not the fire itself but the smoke it produces. Smoke can reach temperatures of 600 degrees and literally burns everything it comes into contact with.