BUSINESS resilience consultancy Fior has earned a deal with drinks giant Edrington which is believed to be its largest ever single contract.

The Stirling firm, founded by former police boss Joe Holden and fire chief Tommy Mann in 2009, will brief senior Edrington staff around the world on how to deal with major and unexpected incidents.

The agreement, which is worth a five-figure sum, will involve travelling to locations in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, the United States, Dominican Republic and Spain over the next 12 months.

Fior provides training in areas including crisis management, security planning and incident response. It has previously worked with Edrington, which produces Scotch brands including The Macallan, The Famous Grouse and Highland Park as well as Snow Leopard vodka and Brugal rum, providing fire and safety incident management training at its Scottish distilleries.

Mr Holden, previously a chief superintendent who was head of operational policing with Central Scotland Police, said: "The opportunity of delivering our new international commitment with Edrington is our largest win to date and will see us providing incident response training and support to its various management teams who are currently operating in challenging environments."

Mr Mann is a former director of service delivery with Central Scotland Fire & Rescue who was also head of operational firefighting responses across the region.

Fior also works with clients including Royal Bank of Scotland, Dounreay, The Malcolm Group, Standard Life, Iberdrola, National Galleries of Scotland, North British Distilleries, Glasgow City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Tesco Bank.

Along with the founders it employs one other director and three associations along with a number of freelance contractors.

Mr Holden, who worked on assignments ranging from the Dunblane shooting tragedy to the security arrangements for the G8 conference during his career, said: "Our team - through their impressive and long-standing careers - have gathered rare and unique experiences of leading, planning and responding to a vast array of professional challenges.

"This experience means we are able to provide companies and organisations with realistic and tested tools, training and guidance to help their people to control the inevitable crises that will occur and prevent a potential disaster in regards to people safety, reputation and business continuity.

"We like to ask companies if their business could survive if it was involved in a repeat of the horsemeat scandal or what disaster recovery measures it has in place should another Clutha helicopter tragedy happen?"