With over 30 years of experience in the industry, Gareth Foster is director at Mercury Fire and Security in Nottingham.
What are your company’s main business activities?
Our company installs, maintains and carries out corrective maintenance of intruder alarms, fire alarms, CCTV systems and access control, as well as fire extinguishers.
What emerging technologies do you see shaping the future of the industry, and how is your company adapting to stay ahead?
On the commercial side of things, fire compliance seems to be a growing trend. Having that audit trail to show a history of testing. There are various developments in this area, and we are watching those. Having moved to Uptick we are able to document non compliances, giving clients a visual report with photographs of what does not comply, we identify items as non-compliant, advisory or defective and have annotations as to whether the defect is critical or recommended.
For intruder alarms, it’s interesting to watch what relative newcomers like Ajax and Alarm.com are doing, and the dominance of established brands like Galaxy falling away. We feel we are in a good place with Orisec, who seem to have a good mix of the old and the new. Customer friendly products which are aesthetically pleasing.
The domestic intruder market is seeing more and more pressure from DIY brands like Ring. The Pyronix Doorbell is an interesting example of some fight back from a traditional manufacturer, and it would be good to see more of that sort of thing.
Monitored CCTV is a growing trend and our company has acquired BS8418 which allows us to install and maintain monitored, police response CCTV systems.
In what ways does NSI certification differentiate your company from competitors and enhance your credibility within the industry?
On the commercial front, the accreditation is as valuable as ever. We find our yearly audits are always a good opportunity to learn from knowledgeable inspectors. Their drive to see things properly written up in specifications is worthwhile in its own right, to make sure our customers know just what they’re getting, and that they meet their obligations to their insurers.
Domestic customers are on the whole less aware of the NSI than they were 10 years ago, but explaining the benefits to them can still often set us apart from competitors for whom intruder alarms are more of a side line.
How has the rise of smart/home automation technology influenced your business and the services you offer?
Home automation seems like a great idea on paper, but the reality of the costs against getting off the chair and pressing the light switch seem to mean it’s still for the rich or geeky.
The whole matter/thread standard seems interesting, but I’ve not seen any mention of it integrating with alarms or CCTV.
The UK economy isn’t helping and most customers are happy to concentrate on the basics of securing the property.
Read the full interview in the November 2025 edition of PSi magazine
