About us: testimonials
Harry Webster admits he never had any great ambition to start his own business, but more than three decades after setting up H R Fire & Safety, he is looking forward to seeing son Darren carry it on into the future.
For 20 years, Lambert Roper & Horsfield’s Keith Lyons has provided expert advice to the Leeds-based business, which looks after the fire safety needs of more than 2,000 industrial and commercial clients in the north of England, becoming a friend as well as an accountant in the process.
Darren, who came into the business after firstly following a career in estate agency, runs the company, with Harry putting in three days a week to help out. As Harry prepares for the day that he steps aside completely, a new era is beginning in the relationship between H R Fire & Safety and Lambert Roper & Horsfield, where Nick Frost is now also closely involved in the Leeds firm’s affairs.
H R Fire & Safety – named after Harry and wife Ruth – started trading in 1977. Harry had previously worked in the fire safety industry for a multi-national firm but when a move to smaller company, as MD of its northern division, failed to work out, he found himself going it alone with only a briefcase and a month’s salary in lieu of notice behind him.
Since then, the business has grown into one of the largest independent specialists in the region. It now employs 13 people and as well as supplying and maintaining fire extinguishers provides related products and services, including supplying fire hose reels and fire exit signs and servicing fire alarms.
The company originally became a Lambert Roper & Horsfield client on the recommendation of a neighbouring business, Specialist Hose Supplies, and the firm now provides services to H R Fire & Safety including year-end accounts, pre-year end tax planning, tax compliance and dividend planning, as well as advice on personal finance issues.
Harry says: “We have had a lot of help from Keith and if we need advice or to arrange a meeting on a particular issue, we know he or Nick are only a phone call away. We have a very good relationship with them.”
In fact, Keith was one of the first people Harry turned to when Specialist Hose Supplies was struggling and up for sale, to discuss with him the viability – “and the pros and cons” – of buying the firm. As a result he decided to go ahead and with Keith’s help, the business has now been turned around and is trading successfully from a new home within H R Fire & Safety’s premises.
Harry says: “We get people ringing us up and say ‘We are accountants, we can do your books and do you a good deal’ but we’re not interested. Lambert Roper & Horsfield are far more than just accountants – we class them as friends.”
