70 • AUTOLOCKSMITHS
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Lockdecoders
has new premises
Peter Southern used to operate his
auto locksmith business First Auto
Locksmiths from home from 1998.
Gradually that morphed into a
much more significant business
in the supply of locksmith tools
and since 2007 that business has
been known as Lockdecoders.
»»AFTER 2011 THE LOCKSMITHING
business was finally ended and the
sole operation was in research and
development of specialised tools and
machines. During this period the
company developed the MiraClone and
in collaboration with Red Technology
of South Korea the range of key cutting
machines now familiar to many hundreds
of locksmiths – the Miracle range. Along
the way the company started also to
market the Magic series of engravers,
SuperVag – the solution to lost VAG
keys and most recently the SuperMerc
range which fills that same function for
Mercedes electronic keys.
So, the business filled and overfilled
a fairly large house and it became
imperative to find a new HQ. The unit
had to accommodate 3 large offices, a
good-sized storeroom, a demonstration
area and a training centre. We wanted it
to be in walking distance of the mainline
rail station and with easy access from the
M25 and M20 motorways. That eliminated
most of the premises offered. After a one
year search the company acquired a long
lease on a unit on the Park Road Industrial
Sites in Swanley – Unit 14. Even so the
premises required massive alterations
with a seemingly never-ending list of
contractors involved, painter, plumber,
carpenter, drywall erector, electrician, gas
engineer, telephone engineer, carpet fitter,
alarm man, window fitter, sign maker,
computer technician - and a seemingly
endless series of bills. After 6 weeks it was
actually possible to move and within a
few days the company constructed its first
training seminar, on the SuperMerc with
Neal Southern as the instructor.
Lockdecoders is now also able to begin
a full marketing and technical backup
on the Magic range of engravers which
it has been mainly selling through its
international distributor network in quite
some quantity but space and personnel
prevented a total product launch in the
UK. There is synergy for these machines
with our large existing customer base
as the machines offer really fantastic
possibilities for shop locksmiths, mobile
locksmiths and shoe bars. For the first
time the company was represented at
the January Trophex exhibition at the
NEC in Birmingham. Of course, for some
years Lockdecoders has been everpresent at locksmith shows here and
overseas. Countries where the firm has
been represented at exhibitions include
the USA, Australia, Thailand, France,
the Czech Republic, South Africa, Israel,
Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Poland.
The firm already exports to over 40
countries but has its eyes on several other
major markets.
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL.CO.UK | MAR/APR 2016
Sponsored by ABUS
Note from Editor
The Locksmith would like to
sincerely apologise for a genuine
error that was included in an article
written about Lockdecoders in our
last edition of Locksmith. In the
article, Lockdecoders was referred
to as ‘infamous’ instead of ‘famous’
a mistake which should not have
happened.