Pro Installer April 2017 - Issue 49 | Page 23

APRIL 2017 | 23 News Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk A look at Winlock over thirty years: 1987 Established by Lowe & Fletcher Ltd. CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF INNOVATION UK door and window hard- ware manufacturer Winlock Se- curity is celebrating 30 successful years of business. Established in 1987 in Telford, Shropshire, Winlock Security Ltd is the only remaining volume manu- facturer of window handles in the UK. Since trading began, Winlock has made and sold more than 25million window handles. This is over 5,500 tonnes of metal, and equates to twice the weight of the steel in Blackpool Tower. Laid end to end the handles would cover the distance across the Atlantic from England to the USA. The company’s longest serving employee is Diane Roberts. She has been at the Telford factory for 43 years, back when the business was a different outfit making camlocks and locking cylinders for cabinet locks, lockers and garage doors. Diane joined in the celebra- tions and said: “I’m so proud to work with such a fantastic group of people - hardworking, driven, creative and great fun. I hope we’ll all be here for the next 30 years.” The Telford-based business prides itself on being dynamic, forward-thinking and solution-fo- cused and its desire for innovation has intensified rather than dimin- ished over its three decades in business. Whilst the scope of the known hardware world is argua- bly already covered by the compa- ny, its drive to innovate is inherent as demonstrated by the news that Winlock will be unveiling over ten brand new SKUS in 2017 alone, the first being the Trimas 3-star cylinder. “It’s an exciting time for Win- lock,” said Winlock Security Ltd managing director Alan Parker. “We have, and will continue to heavily invest in developing unique products and unrivalled services which will set Winlock and our customers not only apart, but more importantly ahead of our competition. “We are prepared to fill prod- uct and service niches that our bigger competitors are unable or unwilling to meet. If a customer has a problem, we want to provide the solution. Over our 30 years of trading we have formed strong unions with many key hardware suppliers and our partners include Imperial, Kenrick, GU, and Yale.” Winlock designs, develops, produces and supplies across the gamut of door and window hard- ware from handles, locks, cylinders and hinges, to vents, patio locking systems, strikers and security de- vices and specialises in providing innovative door and window hard- ware including timber, aluminium, PVCu and composite applications to UK and European fabricators. The range includes the Stronghold range, which features the patented extending deadbolt throw, or so- called ‘slam shut’ function. 1989 A Royal Visit. Prince Philip tours the Winlock factory and plants tree. 1992 Manufactured their millionth window handle. 2000 Behind lock and key! HM Prison Wormood Scrubs orders 2000 units per year of the Custodian window handle. 2004 A warehouse was introduced to keep up with rising demand. 2006 Winlock added door & patio door hardware to its product range. 2013 Winlock acquired by Alan Parker (previous MD of Heywood Williams Group), Michael Davidsen (co-founder of Mila) and Harry Budhrani (owner of Imperial Hardware Asia). December 2013 – expanded premises in December with 21,025sqft warehouse. 2015 A rare and venomous Huntsman spider believed to have travelled 5000 miles from Taiwan was found in a container delivered to Winlock Security. 2016 Conducted 30 different tests to PAS024 (2012) to ensure compliance to Document Q. Summer 2016 – Launched Deltalock and Lifetime Concealed ranges and announced partnership with Ingenious. 2017 Announced launch of 10 new SKUs including the Trimas range.