Ann: Half Yearly Report and Accounts, page-58

could they actually be the only ones pursuing the opportunities?

A snowball’s chance in hell of that I think. But that said, to actually identify Alexium’s competitors is extremely difficult – there is so very little information about this process that is publicly available.

I sense that with the FR-ACU uniform program, the principal competition to Alexium comes from companies with differing inherent FR solutions.

These probably include the usual suspects. Milliken has developed ResQ FR fabric (30% meta-aramid, + Fr treated cotton using phosphorous based FR). Drifire has Fortrex (rayon+ Dupont’s Nomex meta-aramid) and Gore has developed Katana (38% nylon, 38% cotton 24% PTFE- like Teflon). As with the incumbent Defender M FR solution (65% Lenzing FR rayon, 25% para-aramid, 10% nylon) and leaving the issue of Berry Amendment compliance aside, I believe that all of these inherent FR options are much more expensive than Alexium’s topical FR solution for NyCo. I also think it’s likely that NyCo, especially made with Invista/Cordura’s T420HT nylon 6,6 fibre, has a considerable durability advantage (which is also another cost advantage).

Given the Army’s own words about what they are aiming for, Alexium would seem to be competitively well placed in this program

Emerging threat scenarios, such as subterranean and megacities are necessitating that the Army reassess its current FR-ACU to develop fabrics that are more durable, comfortable and lower cost while having flame protection properties equal to or surpassing the current FR-ACU and not use halogenated or toxic materials that may be released while burning.


I also don’t think that Alexium is the only company pursuing the other program of FR in existing standard issue NyCo US military uniforms.

Dr Brookins referred to the competition in this program at last year’s AGM. He expressed the opinion that Alexium’s two key competitive advantages in this program were weight and laundering. He stated that Alexium’s solution was half the added weight of its nearest competitor and could pass 25 industrial launderings compared with the 5 home launderings standard of its nearest competitor.

As to who the competition is, the only two other topical FR solutions which I’ve come across, which I think have probably been pursuing this opportunity, are Nanomech (nGuard) and Materials Modification (Flaret), which hindmarsh brought to our attention to recently.

The comment about Alexium being the only commercial viable candidate possibly refers to the industrial laundering requirement. It’s also possible that the other competitor processes don’t easily adapt to industrial scale application.

The other threat for both programs is the US military itself. Even if years of work have gone into both projects, the military always reserves the right to move or completely remove the goalposts...