54 • SAFES
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BDB Lock and Safe Ltd –
Leading the way since 1985
» » IT’S BEEN 33 YEARS SINCE
Tony Ryan, owner of BDB Lock and
Safe Ltd, manipulated open his first
combination lock whilst sitting on a
beach in Greece – fast forward to
today and he didn’t expect to be
moving around 10 tonnes of safe
each day!
Once Tony turned his hand to safe
locks it quickly became apparent
that he had quite the skill of picking
them open. Through the years Tony
built up quite the encyclopaedia of
all the different locks and safes that
he picked – this glossary of intricate
safe information now sits proudly in
the BDB Warehouse for use by his
son and the other BDB engineers.
A WINNING COMBINATION!
As the experience grew, Tony
became a member of the MLA and
SAVTA to expand his network and
further increase his knowledge.
Towards the late 90s Tony
participated in and won several safe
lock picking contests in America and
the UK through SAVTA and the MLA.
Competing against the likes of Roy
Hamilton, Tony’s skills soon became
well known within the industry
and served several suppliers,
manufacturers and installers with
their safe opening needs.
FAMILY - AND BUSINESS
EXPANSION
As the years continued Tony’s son
Dean joined the company and in
2004 he too got to work on all safe
and vault related matters alongside
his father. Shadowing Tony, Dean
quickly followed in his footsteps
and gained vast experience with all
things safe and vault related.
In 2009 Tony decided he needed
space of his own to expand
the operation and acquired his
first warehouse, having space
now allowed for BDB Lock &
Safe to add safe sales to their
repertoire, allowing Tony and
his son opportunity to use their
existing skills learnt through
servicing. Offering top quality
refurbished safes to the high street
and residential dwellings built
their audience and offered them
experience in moving safes of sizes
and weights, which open the doors
to safe relocation and removal.
With the acquisition of the
warehouse and ever growing skills
Tony and Dean got to work on their
first website www.bdblockandsafe.
co.uk to generate enquiries
organically online. Offering their
services on a national basis there
isn’t a corner of the country they
haven’t visited!
TRAINING THE NEXT WAVE
OF SAFE CRACKERS
Being known as one of the best
safe crackers in the UK and also
writing the MLA Safe Engineer
Exam, Tony received a lot of
interest from people keen to know
more about learning the skills of
the trade. Creating the space in
the warehouse allowed for the
training room and suitable facilities
to offer full training packages on
these services and utilise these
painstakingly acquired skills.
With training programmes still on
offer today Locksmiths today can
genuinely learn the skills directly
from an award winning safe
engineer!
‘Locksmiths
today can
genuinely
learn
the skills
directly
from an
award
winning
safe
engineer!
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL.CO.UK | JAN/FEB 2018
Sponsored by Lockex 2018 - Security & Fire Safety
SELLING SAFES ONLINE
It was in 2012 that Dean realised
the importance of having an online
presence but was determined
that theirs would offer genuine
support, advice and service from
experienced engineers rather than
just sales and marketing.
Dean set up their own online site
www.allaboutsafes.co.uk which is
now one of the top online retailers
of safes and one of a very select
few who are actually from within
the trade!
Wishing to protect the industry
so close to the family’s heart,
BDB Lock and Safe also wishes to
increase the number of locksmiths
they support and work with.
Currently working in partnership
with several firms, BDB Lock and
Safe will continue to maintain high
professional standards within all
safe-related works.
Serving locksmiths directly or
on behalf of them BDB Lock and
Safe offer trade rates for Removal,
Relocation and Purchases.