Number Plate Stories

Fantastic Fireworks' celebrations guaranteed to go with a bang!

By Ruby Speechley

Always on the lookout for novel ways to advertise and promote the company, Jon decided to turn to personal number plates. “I owned M18 ANG for a while, but wanted a plate that was more obviously connected to Bonfire Night. I was offered 8 ANG, but ideally I wanted a number that encapsulated what the company was all about. I thought of NOV 5, but was told that this had never been issued. By pure coincidence, 5 NOV had just become available. I was pleasantly surprised at the price tag of £10,000; I was expecting it to be much more. It really has paid for itself too. We use ‘5 NOV’ in our advertising and as our web address and we often have TV crews turn up, wanting to film me with the plate.”

With an annual turnover of £1.5 million, the company is continuing to grow all the time. “We have offices near London, Manchester and Edinburgh and we’ve just opened a £500,000 purpose-built Firework Training School and headquarters. Public safety is of paramount importance to us and the training courses for our dozens of firers cover all aspects of running a safe display.”

New Firework legislation regulations came into force on 1 January 2005, making it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to possess an adult firework in a public place. A curfew has also been created in relation to the use of adult fireworks between the hours of 11pm and 7am, except on November 5th, New Years Eve, Chinese New Year and Diwali night.

In 2005, Fantastic Fireworks marked the 400 th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, which happened during the reign of King James I, in 1605. “We used Guy Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament as a theme for some of our shows,” said Jon. “Around 5 th November, we generally stage in the region of 100 firework displays at a variety of venues. We employ 16 full-time staff and over 100 part-time helpers nationwide. All sorts of people get involved. Their day jobs range from barrister to parish priest.

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