Survitec Group is a British manufacturer of personal survival equipment for usage after ejecting from aircraft or when at sea.

History

RFD

Reginald Foster Dagnall Reginald Foster Dagnall (11 April 1888 – 16 November 1942) was a British engineer and aircraft designer. Early life Dagnall was born in Fulham, London in 1888 the son of Walter and Frances Dagnall, he was educated at Tiffin School, Kingston ...

formed RFD in 1920 in Surrey. Beaufort had been founded in 1852. RFD liferafts and dinghies were used extensively in World War II for allied aircrew. RFD Beaufort pioneered submarine escape technology in the 1950s, known as

Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment (SEIE), also known as Submarine Escape ''and'' Immersion Equipment, is a whole-body suit and one-man life raft that was first produced in 1952. It was designed by British company RFD Beaufort Limited and allow ...

(SEIE).

Survitec

The Survitec Group was actually formed in 2000. In 2001 it bought DSB (Deutsche Schlauchboot GmbH). In 2009, The Shark Group (founded in 1975) closed its Northumberland site and production was moved to Birkenhead. In 2004 it was bought by Montagu Private Equity for £146 million. In January 2010 Survitec was bought by the private equity firm

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

from

Montagu Private Equity Montagu is a mid-market private equity firm with a specialism in carve-out transactions and other first-time buyout investments. Montagu partners with companies with multi-million dollar enterprise values. Headquartered in London, Montagu also ha ...

for £280 million. In December 2010, it bought Revere Supply Inc of Florida, to become SSPI. In May 2011 Survitec began the process of acquiring two further companies;

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

-based Cosalt Marine, for £31 million.Belfast Telegraph
/ref> and the commercial liferaft and MES business of Bordeaux-based Zodiac. Cosalt Marine, employed over 450 people at 21 worldwide sites, with a turnover of £57 million.

Structure

Its headquarters and registered office is on ''Beaufort Road'' in Birkenhead. The RFD Beaufort factory in Birkenhead is on the A5030 between Poulton and Claughton, next to the

Great Float The Great Float is a body of water on the Wirral Peninsula, England, formed from the natural tidal inlet, the Wallasey Pool. It is split into two large docks, East Float and West Float, both part of the Birkenhead Docks complex. The docks ru ...

. The RFD Beaufort factory in Dunmurry is on the A1. It has servicing plants around the world: *

Sharon Center, Ohio Sharon Center is an unincorporated community in Medina County, Ohio, United States. It is centered at the intersection of Ohio state routes 94 and 162 in Sharon Township (see map at right.) This intersection is actually a large traffic circle with ...

, USA - RFD Beaufort Inc *

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is the m ...

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

, Italy
Eurovinil
*

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, England *

Eschershausen Eschershausen is a municipality in the district of Holzminden, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 20 km northeast of Holzminden, and 50 km south of Hanover. Eschershausen was the seat of the former ''Samtgemeinde'' ...

, Niedersachsen, Germany - DSB
Deutsche Schlauchboot GmbH
*

Les Attaques Les Attaques () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography A large farming and light industrial village located 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Calais, at the junction of the N43 and D248 road ...

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

, France
RFD France
* Belgium - Antwerp, Ostend * Netherlands - Grou, Rotterdam * Spain - Algeciras, Barcelona * Birkenhead - RFD Beaufort * Dunmurry - RFD Beaufort *

Dyce Dyce ( gd, Deis) is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, situated on the River Don about northwest of the city centre. It is best known as the location of Aberdeen Airport. History Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the 8 ...

, Aberdeen
SurvivalOne
an
Shark Group
(formerly in

Broomhill, Northumberland Broomhill is a village in Northumberland, England. It lies to the south-west of Amble, a short distance inland from the North Sea. Broomhill is split into two, as it lies on the border of two districts: Morpeth (the county town of Northumberla ...

) * Aberdeen

- Survitec Survival Craft *

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

, Japan
RFD Japan
* Shanghai, China
WH Brennan
* Hong Kong - WH Brenna
WH Brennan
* Singapore - WH Brenna
WH Brennan
* Australia

Auburn, New South Wales Auburn is a Western Sydney suburb in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Auburn is located west of the Sydney central business district and is in the local government area of Cumberland City Council, having previously been the administrativ ...

, Sydney, Australia
RFD Australia
Freemantle, Melbourne, Slacks Creek * New Zealand - Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington * Gosport, UK ("Crewsaver"

* Canada - Dartmouth, Mount Pearl, Vancouver ("DBC"

* Norway - Aalesund, Bergen, Stokmarnes, Kristiansand * Sweden - Gothenburg

Customers

Customers include * Ministry of Defence * US Navy * US Air Force *

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

* Lockheed Martin *

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

Carnival Cruise Lines Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc. Its logo is a funnel shaped like a whale's tail, with a red, white, and blue color scheme. This ...

Royal Caribbean Cruises Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

Princess Cruises Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California, Santa Clarita, California. As of 2021, it is the List of cruise lines# ...

References

{{reflist General references
Northumberland factory closes in March 2009

External links

Survitec Group

RFD Beaufort Marine
Aircraft component manufacturers of the United Kingdom County Antrim Manufacturing companies established in 1920 Rescue equipment Survival equipment 1920 establishments in England