OFR Consultants is an independent consultancy dedicated to addressing fire safety challenges. Founded in 2016, in nine years it's grown from a two person start-up to what is now the UK’s leading fire risk consultancy.

Before establishing OFR, founders Simon Lay and Sam Liptrott held senior management roles at global multi-disciplinary organisations. They saw space in the market for a practice dedicated solely to fire engineering, with a focus on technical skills, but delivering those services to projects of all sizes and types.

With Sam and Simon at its helm, this promising start-up grew quickly. After founding the business in Manchester, work soon emerged across the UK and Europe and the team began to grow, with bases in London and Scotland quickly established. The vision and dynamic of the business attracted more senior leaders from other multi-discipline organisations, including Ryan McCreadie and Andy Passingham who joined the board of the business, which helped establish additional bases in Yorkshire and the South West.

A research team was established to carry out self funded, governmental and commercial studies into fundamental questions arising around fire safety and to feed state of the art technical solutions into the design process. At the other end of the spectrum, the team also expanded to include experts in the delivery of solutions in the construction environment, creating a full services capability.

By 2018, the directors had recruited 40 new colleagues, with a portfolio now spanning the entire world, with projects in far flung places like Cuba and Sri Lanka.

Now firmly established, the business was able to pivot with all shares being internalised and a rebranding which reiterated the independent nature of the team.