New Blog Site

Our new and exciting blog site is now operational. On our new site you will be able to see all the latest news in the fireworks world as well as what is happening at Jordans Fireworks;

Click here to be re-directed to our new site

New Firework Brochure

Web sites are wonderful things but there is still something about getting a  brochure arrive in the post. Postage costs have risen dramatically in recent years but we at Jordans Fireworks  have a new utilized system that has reduced our costs considerably and whereas many companies no longer send out a printed brochure we are still able to. 

We feel that whilst the web site provides more products and up to date information, it is still nice to get something 'solid' arrive in the post. It also jogs many of our customer’s minds into thinking that Bonfire Night is not far away and its time to think about ordering. 

It does take us several days stuffing all the envelopes and labeling them and as Internet prices can fluctuate rapidly we have taken the approach of producing a separate price list rather than printing the prices in the brochure itself. This allows us to change prices quickly to ensure that we offer our customers the most competitive prices in the market.

If you would like to receive one of our new firework brochures please send us your name and address. Alternatively our web site is now updated with our new products for 2013 (there are now nearly 300 products on line) and shows current stock availability.

Chinese Lanterns

Chinese Lanterns have certainly been a product that has had no difficulty in getting in the news. From a fear that animals would eat the wire that some of them contained to setting fire to businesses. They are however a product that people love to use to celebrate events. From birthdays to weddings as well as at times of the year such as new year's eve.

So why is there all the trouble and bad press about them?

 Government guidelines state that the lantern should contain no metal, it should be made from flame retardant paper and should include a fully assembled non-drip high quality fuel cell. All of our lanterns are of the highest quality and comply with all of the above requirements. Unfortunately not all Chinese Lanterns are of the same high quality and standard as the ones we sell. As John Ruskin said 'There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper'. Certainly that seems to be the way with Chinese Lanterns. It is easy to find them for sale on the internet at what can appear initially to be bargain prices and we have had customers who have bought 'cheap' Chinese Lanterns off the internet tell us how poor performing they were.

So beware when buying Chinese Lanterns. Make sure that the ones you are buying meet the governments guidelines and that you are buying from a reputable supplier.

4th July Independence day

As a UK based company you may at first sight think that the 4th July firework celebrations is something we don't involved in. However we have several companies in our area that have US personnel working for them and whilst here want to celebrate Independence Day. We also supply many fireworks out across the country for 4th July, particularly to London. We have large rockets and single ignition fireworks that are very popular for short spectacular displays but we also sell, mainly to local customers, small boxed selection packs suitable for use in a small back garden.

We've included in this blog a little information about fireworks used in America for the 4th July;

Infographic by Ghergich & Co.

The joy of fireworks

When you work in an industry it can be difficult at times to see the benefits. Those involved in the firework industry know how intense it can be at the mains sales periods and it can seem at times that you are just moving one heavy box from one place to another. Most of the firework boxes weigh around 15 kilo and some can weigh 25 kilo. when they are packed in to their shipping containers in China they are not put on pallets and hence when they arrive in the UK they all have to be unloaded individually by hand. The joy of working in the firework industry hence wears a little thin when you have a 40ft lorry load to unload and speaking from personal experience I have had to go and see a physiotherapist after a busy period just so that I can continue helping with the moving of the cartons.

It was at a visit to my physio that I was reminded about what a great industry it is to work in. Whilst lying on the treatment couch the physio asked 'and what do you do?', 'I sell fireworks' I replied, 'wow that must be so exciting' was the response. And to be honest it is exciting but not in a way that you may think. Many of the things we have to buy are a necessity and hence not very exciting things to buy. When was the last time you got excited about filling your car up with petrol?, see what I mean. Fireworks on the other hand are an exciting purchase. They are used to celebrate events and choosing the fireworks is all part of the excitement. On returning back to our store after my visit to the physio we had some customers purchasing fireworks for a wedding. The look on their faces makes all the moving of heavy boxes worthwhile, the anticipation when buying them and then the pleasure of seeing them when they go off. There can't be many better things to sell.

Of course you need the best fireworks for your event and that's where we come in to the equation. Over 40 years of moving heavy boxes, testing fireworks on cold snowy nights, standing in the rain watching one green fountain after another, sourcing fireworks from only the best manufacturers when there are hundreds to choose from, means that you get the the most exciting fireworks available.

Firing fireworks simultaneously

Here is a recent video of one of our test firing sessions. As part of our on-going quality controil we frequently test fireworks to ensure that the quality control has been maintained by the manufacturer. The fireworks will have been tested in China prior to shipment to the UK but we find it does no harm at all to check that the products perform as we expect them to. 

We recently batch tested some of our Maximum Firepower fireworks. We had had 10% of the stock tested in China but still wanted to do our own testing under the conditions that our customers would be firing them under. We randomly pulled 5 from stock as we also wanted a new video for our web site. However we did let the last two off together to give you an idea of how much more spectaular fireworks can be if you fire two simultaneously. No special equipment was used to light the fireworks just the normal portfire firework lighters. The fireworks were placed just a few metres apart behind one another. It was just a  simple case of lighting one and then moving quickly to the second one to light that. The fuse that is fitted to our fireworks has a burn time of between 5 and 15 seconds. We try to aim for a burn time of around 10 seconds so that you have plenty of time to move away to a safe distance. As fireworks are all hand made there can be variations in the firing time of the same firework. It is not therefore worth panicking to try and light two identical fireworks at exactly the same moment. As long as you are within a couple of seconds, as in this case you've just as much chance of them ending together.

Fireworks for St. George's Day 23rd April 2013

The medieval legend of St George and the dragon is over a thousand years old. At a spring in Libya the local people offered sheep to a dragon that had its nest nearby, in order to draw water. When there were no more sheep to offer the dragon the local people drew lots as to who would be offered to the dragon instead. The Princess Cleolinda’s name was drawn and despite protest from the King she was duly put before the dragon. Right at that moment St George was riding by. He got down from his horse, killed the dragon and saved the princess.

George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in AD 303. Whilst other countries enthusiastically celebrate St George’s Day, the celebrations in England (where he is the patron Saint) had declined by the end of the 18th century and it is only in recent years that it has started to regain its original popularity. In the early 15th century St George’s day in England was celebrated as a national holiday and feast comparable to Christmas, so it still has some way to go.

All of this talk of celebration brings us on to the subject of fireworks. National events in England in recent years, such as the 2011Royal Wedding and the 2012 Diamond Jubilee have encouraged communities to get together and hold community parties and fireworks have quickly become a popular form of entertainment to end the events with.

Whilst large civic organisations can afford large scale professional displays, smaller communities have a more restricted budget to work to. The recent advance in firework design though, enable smaller groups or organisations to put on a professional looking display for a fraction of the cost. Commonly know as the ‘single ignition box’, ‘display in a box’ or a ‘single fuse firework’, this style of firework has made it easy to fire a continuous aerial firework display lasting up to 2 minutes by lighting just one fuse. Several of this type of firework can easily be lit one after each other to provide a display lasting 10 minutes and there is no longer a need to run around with a lighter to light them as there are now simple to use remote control firing systems that cost just a few pounds.

So ‘Cry God for Harry, England and St George’ and lets celebrate our patron saint and have some fun.

Our Spring Sale is up and running. It will end on 30th May so take advantage of our bargain prices whilst available. If you buy now but do not want to take delivery or collect your fireworks until later in the year, that is not a problem as we will store your order free of charge until required.

So what has been happening at Jordans Fireworks recently. Well we have been doing some testing of fireworks, the most spectacular being two Maximum Firepowers let off together (video to follow shortly). We are still waiting for one of our major suppliers to confirm their 2013 range so we have not yet finalized our range for the coming Bonfire Night season yet but hope to shortly.

Also, here is a video of some of our old dummy fireworks, which are basically just empty cardboard tubes being put to great effect in the EU.

All ready for our 2013 Spring Firework Sale.
We have been working hard for the last few weeks getting everything ready for our annual Spring sale. We have picked up some fantastic bargains from importers that had had orders cancelled. The van has been on some interesting trips, including a couple of journeys to pick up orders from RAF Alconbury. This is a fascinating site and even more dramatic on a foggy day when huge bomb proof shelters appear out of the mist. Visit the bunker tours site for more pictures such as this;

We have printed off the order forms and have got the email ready to send out. The printers will be delivering the flyers next week so we will be spending several days stuffing envelopes ready to post.

Existing customers and people who have asked to receive details will be in the first wave of notifications, so if you would like to receive details please contact us.

In this year's sale will a barrage pack that I would encourage everyone to buy as it is such fantastic value and contains such good fireworks, a few single ignitions including a twin pack of the fan effect variety at less than half srp plus some giant rockets. Stock of some of the items is very limited and it is a first come first served basis, but you can buy fireworks now and have us store them for you free of charge until later in the year if you wish.

When to buy fireworks?

These days you can buy fireworks all year round from specialist firework suppliers. We at Jordans Fireworks are open all year round a keep a good selection of fireworks throughout the year. When however is the best time to buy fireworks? The fireworks available in the UK are almost without exception manufactured in China and deliveries in to the UK are mainly scheduled around August and September ready to take advantage of those sales periods. Whilst major firework suppliers like ourselves have placed our orders with manufacturers up to 12 months previous to the main sales period it can be a case of not knowing exactly what you have got until you open the box and let one off. We therefore, particularly with new fireworks, advise customers to wait until we have tested one before they order one. We suggest around August and September is the ideal time to start planning what fireworks you would like for your November display. Certainly by October lines are starting to sell out and once they have gone there may not be a chance for the supplier to re-stock for probably 6 to 9 months. You can leave buying your fireworks for your November display right up to the last minute, but would we advise it? No we would not. Buying earlier will give you the best selection and we will have plenty of time to go through with you the various fireworks available as well as suggesting firing orders. Whilst we still offer, as best we can, that service right up to November 5th, you can imagine how manic things can get at our busiest time of the year.

One of the best times of the year we suggest to order some of your fireworks is during our annual Spring Firework Sale. We run our sale for six weeks and have offers that are well below even our normal special offer prices. In our sale we concentrate on larger aerial barrages, larger rockets and large packs of aerial barrages. These types of fireworks form the cornerstone of displays from £100 to many thousands. You can buy fireworks in our sale and choose to either have them delivered (or you can collect from our store) later in the year so that you do not have to store them for several months. We store orders for customers free of charge.

If you require fireworks away from the main periods then we suggest that you should order at least a  week before your display so that we can arrange delivery to you and you can familiarise yourself with the fireworks before using them.

New blog for Jordans Fireworks

We have for some time been running our blogspot and also posting articles of interest about fireworks but not on our blogspot, so we are now bringing them together and they will also feed to a blog section on our main fireworks web page so that you can easily see new items and click through for further information.

Interesting items about the science of fireworks;

Latest January firework news at Jordans Fireworks

We have just taken delivery of a few items supplied by UK suppliers that we had run out of. One of the items back in stock are the Ice Fountains.

These are a great firework for use on cakes (birthday, wedding, anniversary etc). They last around a  minute each and produce a shower of sparks around 12" tall. They are easy to light (unlike sparklers which always prove quite difficult) and leave little if any debris on the cake, so the cake is quite edible after the fountains have finished.

We have placed our first order for the coming bonfire/new year season but no new lines yet. The first of the UK importers brochures has dropped through the door (Fireworks International). They are introducing a new range of large cakes around the £100 mark. I'm not sure if they are going to sell in large numbers as it is quite an area of the market that is already awash with products. They do have a new little double break rocket though and that should sell well. As always with new products though, you are never quite sure what you are going to get until you open the container doors and go and let one off.

We're off to Spring Fair next week but two of our largest UK suppliers are no longer exhibiting there so limited opportunities there for us.

January 2013 update
We are just starting buying fireworks for Bonfire Night & New Year 2013; we know that we have only just got new year 2012 out of the way but we have to buy so far in advance. In some cases we are having to order 18 months in advance to get the products we require. Nothing new product wise to report yet but should be able to update regarding new products after the Spring Fair where several of the major UK importers will have stands.

However some of the largest importers/manufacturers do not show at Spring Fair so we will either be visiting them or they will be calling on us in the next few weeks.

January 2013 at Jordans Fireworks

We are back from our annual New Year break. We have had very good reports from customers about our fireworks, particularly many of the ones we have specificaly designed to our specifications. Also we have had very few fireworks that did not fire all the way through this year, in fact we think that 2012 has been our best year for firework performance.

Whilst the firework trade will generaly not talk about non-firing fireworks, particularly when trying to sell you a firework it is most important that you get the most reliable fireworks you can. Obviously a supplier cannot test all of their fireworks before selling them and fireworks are hand made, so there is always an issue with qulaity control. With new suppliers of fireworks we will test quantities of their products prior to selling them as it were on the open market. That way we get to find out if there are reliabilty problems. Products that have a higher then accepted failure rate do not get in to our range.

Many of the products that feature in our range may also have underwent a year of small qantities being supplied to regular customers to ensure their reliability prior to becoming a product that we would sell in large quantities with confidence. Our customers who help us with this testing appreciate being able to try something new and see a new effect (usualy at a special price) and their feedback is most helpful. Thay also know that if the product failed to work then they will be refunded in full.

Jordans Fireworks are well known for their after sales service and should any of our fireworks fail to work we do credit customers. A photo of the product (if we do not get the faulty item back) helps us to identify where the problem lay and that information is pased on to the quality control department of the manufacturer.

Here are a  few recent customers comments;-

I look forward to using your fireworks again and it's a pleasure dealing with a company which appears to have a genuine interest in meeting and responding to its customers' needs. DP

thankyou, all received safe and sound, thanks for following up. great  service as always! SR

Your service from start to finish was exemplary. I didn't think people looked after their clients this way any more. You and your fireworks are truly excellent. SB