Faith Mason, Regional Director, LHD Australia and Kevin Rae, Vice President EMEA FIRE and Global Mergers & Acquisition Integration, Lakeland, discuss ingenuity and firefighter safety in decontamination.
In July 2024, Lakeland Industries completed the acquisition of LHD Group, adding a major global brand in fire turnout gear and a proven leader in PPE care services to its portfolio. The move brought together manufacturing scale, R&D capability, and specialist operational expertise to advance firefighter safety on a global level.
At the forefront of this integration are Kevin Rae, Vice President EMEA FIRE and Global Mergers & Acquisition Integration at Lakeland, and Faith Mason, Regional Director at LHD Australia. Their combined insights highlight how the partnership is driving innovation in PPE design, lifecycle management, and decontamination. This feature explores the technical and operational strategies shaping their work, from rigorous contamination removal to extending garment life and adapting proven service models worldwide.
Kevin explained that Lakeland’s long-term objective has been clear. “Lakeland Industries has had a vision to create a business and a collective of major brands to really work and integrate into the fire industry with a worldwide footprint.” The addition of LHD Group, with its operations in Germany, Hong Kong and Australia, was a significant step toward becoming, as he described, “a global first responder safety leader.”
From the outset, LHD’s Australian operation stood out for its specialist capability in PPE care. “In the Australian market, the area of decontamination services, which is called LHD Care, was a major interest,” Kevin said. “It is about the decontamination, repair, maintenance and lifecycle management of the fire kit. It is far more than simply washing garments.”
Faith has seen that service evolve over her two decades with the company. “It is no longer just a support or a bonus to buy the suits,” she explained. “It is a specific service that stands on its own.” What began in 2002 as a partnership offering PPE sales alongside cleaning and maintenance has grown into a dedicated operation backed by advanced processes and software. “The software is the real game changer,” she said. “It drives the system and allows customers to track their garments in real time.”
Kevin described the integration as a two-way exchange. “We are all in a melting pot together… taking some of their experiences and some of the experiences we have in other environments and bringing a global view on research and development.”
For Faith, the merger is also about opportunity. “In Australia we have large state-based government run agencies. In other regions the structure is very different, so it is about understanding those differences and working out how the service can be structured to meet them.”
