North Defence launched to bolster light military vehicle production space

Just 18 months after opening a new manufacturing plant in Yorkshire, North Fire’s founder, Oliver North, has expanded his European operations and rebranded, to better serve the ever more complex requirements of its customers.

North Fire is synonymous with producing rapid response vehicles and it is this same ‘rapid response’ business philosophy that has prompted North Fire to rebrand as North Defence and open a new European Headquarters and production facility in Luxembourg.

Commenting on the huge expansion programme and rebrand former Royal Engineer and firefighting vehicle stalwart Oliver North, Founder and Managing Director of North Fire and North Defence, said:

“No one is more passionate about British manufacturing than me, but my military experience has taught me that strategically we need to be headquartered in the heart of Europe to ensure we can design, build, and deploy our industry-leading vehicles in the most expedient manner.

“Europe is facing challenges not seen for more than 80 years which I have experienced first-hand having personally delivered vehicles to the frontline for Ukraine’s armed forces and state emergency service constantly over the past 3 and a half years.”

North Defence’s new factory has already been commissioned in Luxembourg with local engineers recruited to commence regional production. Light mobility vehicle orders from EU-based defence organisations are currently in build at the new site.

Explaining the reasons for the rebrand, Oliver said: “The Ukraine projects clearly demonstrated to me that there are far more similarities than differences when building and supplying military vehicles and civilian emergency vehicles, albeit with very specific elements for each.

“I wanted our brand to better reflect our true capability, hence the launch of North Defence. I am particularly proud that the new North Defence logo incorporates my former military rank of corporal as I have a lot to thank the British Army for, from my seven years’ service at the start of my working career.

“In fact, a large proportion of the North Fire team hired over the past two decades are former British Army engineers and soldiers, which has proven pivotal in our operational vehicle development. Simply put, we would not be where we are without them.”

The original Yorkshire plant will continue to be the centre of excellence for North Defence’s firefighting division which is set to benefit enormously from the expanded European business as it now has access to state-of-the-art military technology for firefighting vehicle use.

Former army officer, Major (retired) Mark Gresty, will assume the full time role of general manager at the new Luxembourg plant. Mr Gresty, a former military colleague of Oliver North from the late 1990’s, retired from the military in 2020 and has worked closely with Mr North since his British Army retirement.