{"id":643688,"date":"2025-12-20T05:58:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643688\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T05:58:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T05:58:22","slug":"huddersfield-entrepreneur-and-former-army-corporal-oliver-north-expands-into-europe-with-north-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643688\/","title":{"rendered":"Huddersfield entrepreneur and former army corporal Oliver North expands into Europe with North Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Huddersfield entrepreneur Oliver North has rebranded his firefighting vehicle manufacturing business and expanded into the growing European defence industry.<\/p>\n

Mr North has rebranded Mytholmroyd-based North Fire to North Defence and has opened its European headquarters and a new factory in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

The new name and focus on defence reflects world events and the more complex requirements of the company\u2019s customer base.<\/p>\n

Mr North, 44, has been in the emergency vehicle manufacturing industry since leaving the British Army in 2004.<\/p>\n

Father-of-two Mr North, who grew up in Netherton, served in the Royal Engineers for six years rising to the rank of Corporal.<\/p>\n

He worked for a Kirklees-based emergency vehicle manufacturer becoming its top performing salesman before setting up his own company in Huddersfield \u2013 the original North Fire \u2013 in 2008.<\/p>\n

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In recent years Mr North\u2019s growing order book for emergency vehicles has taken him to the frontline in Ukraine where he\u2019s seen first hand the impact of the war on ordinary people.<\/p>\n

Countries across Europe are now putting more focus on defence and North Fire\u2019s\u00a0capability and ability to pivot production toward modern battlefield vehicle technology was utilised by various EU NATO member states.<\/p>\n

Mr North said: \u201cNo 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\u00a0vehicles more reactively.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuxembourg is a country I\u2019ve spent so much time in over the past few years and have grown a deep admiration for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe calibre of people, infrastructure, transport links and local supply chains are exceptional, and the pride they have for the country is admirable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North Defence factory opened in the town of Steinsel in September 2025\u00a0<\/strong>and the launch was attended by Luxembourg Defence Minister Yuriko Backes (below) and other senior Luxembourg and Ukrainian military personnel.<\/p>\n

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Mr North added: \u201cEurope is facing challenges not seen for more than 80 years and I\u2019ve seen this up close having personally delivered vehicles to the frontline for Ukraine\u2019s armed forces and state emergency service constantly over the past three-and-a-half years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new factory is now up and running in Luxembourg and Mr North splits his time between Yorkshire and Steinsel as he builds his team.<\/p>\n

The workforce is 11 in Luxembourg and 27 in Mytholmroyd and those numbers are set to increase at home and in Europe.<\/p>\n

Explaining the reasons for the rebrand,\u00a0Mr North\u00a0said: \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted our brand to better reflect our true capability, hence the rebrand\u00a0and pivot to\u00a0North\u00a0Defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am particularly proud that the new\u00a0North\u00a0Defence logo incorporates my former military rank of corporal as I have a lot to thank the British Army for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, a large proportion of the\u00a0North\u00a0Fire 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mr North has been to Ukraine no fewer than 12 times since the start of the war and in May 2025 was awarded the Badge of Honour, the highest level of recognition from the State Emergency Services of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Badge of Honour is a symbol of the partnership between North\u00a0Defence, the State Emergency Services of Ukraine and the Firefighters Foundation and something I will cherish for the rest of my life,\u201d said Mr North.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegrity and ethics are at the heart of everything North Defence does and the company aligns itself with NATO member state requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr North\u2019s first company, North Fire Ltd, was based in Brockholes and operated between 2008 and 2014 before being 75% acquired by Rosenbauer, the world\u2019s largest firefighting truck manufacturer.<\/p>\n

Mr North grew Rosenbauer UK into a \u00a320 million turnover company and left in 2019.<\/p>\n

He became managing director at Goole-based ambulance maker O&H Vehicle Technology and later completed a management buy-out, creating Venari Group.<\/p>\n

In January 2024 he acquired and separated Venari\u2019s\u00a0defence and\u00a0firefighting division and formed North Fire.<\/p>\n

He is now the sole shareholder in North Defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huddersfield entrepreneur Oliver North has rebranded his firefighting vehicle manufacturing business and expanded into the growing European defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1123,197712,197713],"class_list":{"0":"post-643688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-north-defence","13":"tag-oliver-north"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115750368353357490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}