Notice Board
Codelocks celebrates 30 years of innovation
By Dominic Ryan – Operations Director , Codelocks
» IT ALL STARTED FROM A FLAT IN Red Lion Square , central London . Dorothea and Desmond Ryan taking calls in the fourth floor flat , running down five flights of stairs to the basement where the stock was stored . Then they ’ d take the orders around the block to the post office for dispatch .
As business rapidly took off , and their legs began to resent the multiple trips up and down stairs , they rented a small unit at the back of the square to increase stockholding and improve logistics . I helped out , running smaller orders to the post office and visiting local customers – but we soon had a regular courier for collections , and a company car to travel further than the confines of London . We even indulged in a mobile phone – cutting edge tech in the 1990s ! It enabled Desmond and Dorothea , based in the office ( or flat ) to stay in touch with me in our ‘ warehouse ’ at street level – and saved a lot of leg work !
This happy arrangement continued for a year , until the business outgrew our small stock unit . We needed more space , but that was expensive in central London . We also needed a computer system to create accounts , raise invoices , load stock onto – and generally keep pace with the company expansion . We wanted a system that was tailored to our needs and , as luck would have it , Desmond ’ s brother was a selftaught computer whizz . Better still , living
in Somerset , this offered us the opportunity to rent warehousing space at far more reasonable rates – two birds with one stone ! We also took on another employee in dispatch and recruited two part-time office clerks for invoicing and tele-sales .
Meanwhile Desmond and Dorothea were searching for a place outside London to both live and ultimately relocate the Codelocks operation . Which brought us to Newbury in Berkshire , and we have been here ever since , although our rapid expansion has led us to move three times in and around the town itself .
Family values
Though much has changed in the access control industry , I ’ m proud that Codelocks still has the same family values as when I first joined in the early 1990s , when there were just three of us servicing our core industry distributors . I am also happy to say that we still supply those distributors today .
The family has always been very handson with the running of the company , from operating the warehouse and talking to customers , to getting out and visiting sites . We try to impress the same ethos with our management team . We strive to be inclusive and value our people as individuals . Our business is built on respect and trust for one another , and we also want to see employees expand their roles as our business grows .
A strong product range
Though we ’ re still pushing the boundaries with our latest Smart Locks , we never forget that we built our customer base by offering a wide range of practical solutions . One of our early mechanical locks for example , the CL255 mortice latch , is still hugely popular , standing out from the crowd with its premium finish , and our 50 pence shaped thumb turn .
Another product that has outlived many of its competitors , is the CL5010 Heavy Duty Tubular Mortice Latch . To me this is the holy grail ; an electronic lock with a solid mechanical foundation that provides access control without the expense of installing a hard-wired traditional system .
The CL5010 was a milestone on our electronic lock roadmap bridging the gap between mechanical and electronic locks . It enabled us to engage with new customers with ever smarter and more diverse requirements and has given us a reliable mechanical platform from which to deliver an electronic stand-alone solution .
An eye on the future
Whilst there is still a lot of demand for our traditional product lines , our ability to innovate as we develop new products and services is core to our success in new and existing markets . Our app and web-based access solutions for example , enables us to appeal to a wider audience , and customers are finding ever more
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NOV / DEC 2021
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