We catch up with Natasha Lear from Ardent to find out more about the Ardent Limited brand and its presence at Euro Bus Expo, on stand D26.
Tell us a bit about your company:
Ardent Group was founded in 1993 and has been protecting human life, business assets, and social safety ever since. Since our founding, we have protected over 100,000 assets in over 50 countries worldwide, putting personal and professional safety first since day one.
Ardent’s core beliefs have been at the foundation of the business for nearly 30 years. As a company, we are committed to doing the right thing, challenging ourselves, and working as one team to unlock the full potential of the business.
Over that time, we have consistently refined both our product offer and the services we provide, and today our level of technical expertise, breadth and depth of products, and solid global supply chain are all unmatched. Our global reach translates into a strong local presence, ensuring we are able to be agile enough to respond quickly to our customers’ needs.
Following our acquisition of Forman Vehicle Services in 2019, we expanded into the bus market and used our experience of working in some of the most challenging environments to develop reliable safety solutions to keep bus drivers and passengers safe.
We exist to advance the cause of safety for people and businesses. We believe in going beyond mere regulatory compliance and in taking every reasonable step to protect assets from fire. However, we also know that fire can affect each business in different ways, which is why we’re committed to its bespoke approach to system installation. We developed a thorough five-step installation process involving on-site visits and technical discussions about each vehicle specification, putting our customers’ needs first and tailoring each installation according to the requirements of the job.
Tell us about your latest products, services, promotions or launches that visitors can hope to see on your stand:
We offer a vast range of safety and accessibility systems for buses, coaches, mini and midi vehicles, and a variety of heavy and light mobile and static plant.
Our automatic fire suppression systems for buses are trusted by many leading operators and manufacturers worldwide due to their innovative electronic detection system. We use a linear heat detection (LHD) cable which is resistant to wear and tear caused by the vibrations of a moving vehicle. This makes it a more reliable solution for vehicles than traditional pressurised systems and less prone to false discharges.
Our fire suppression systems are reliable and durable, and tested to meet the highest international standards, including UNECE R107. Our Dual Agent System uses the optimal mix of suppression agents for the job, meaning they can be effectively used on ICE buses and ZEVs, so we expect them to generate a lot of interest from operators and OEMs on the stand.
In addition to this, we will be exhibiting a range of electronic safety and accessibility systems for buses. This includes the Pedal Acoustic Feedback System, specially designed for ZEVs. This prevents pedal application errors by playing a tone to the driver that shifts in pitch when the vehicle accelerates or decelerates, imitating the tone shift of an ICE engine.
Why is exhibiting at Euro Bus Expo 2022 an unmissable opportunity for you?
Euro Bus marks the formal transition of what was formerly Forman Vehicle Services into the Ardent Group. This is a huge strategic step for the company, and we look forward to discussing it with old and new customers alike on the stand.
As we continue to grow in the international bus market, it’s important that we speak with one voice and a clear message. By transitioning Forman into the Ardent brand, we simplify our message and unify our voice. Euro Bus Expo is one of the biggest platforms of its kind in the world, making it the perfect platform for our brand launch.
The exposure this will give our brand means there’s no better place to launch it than on the stand at Euro Bus Expo. The number of attendees we’ll be able to share our message with is massive, so it’s an opportunity we simply can’t miss.
Outside of that, we’re also passionate about safety and asset protection. We know that buses – especially electric buses, which are widely considered to be the future of the sector – pose many risks. Our safety solutions will mitigate these risks. The more systems we can install into buses, the safer our roads will be. That’s why we test our technology against the most exacting standards, so we can be confident it will protect human life and vehicle assets in real-world scenarios.