Whether it’s slowing down an intruder or fitting a shutter door at record speed, time is what counts…
Time is a funny thing. Sometimes you want to slam on the brakes; other times, you’d do anything to speed up. Take my recent getaway to Bidford, for example. There I was, lounging on the balcony, soaking in the stunning Warwickshire scenery, and wishing time would just slow down.
I wanted to savour the moment, much like I wanted my glass of chardonnay to last just a little bit longer. But that yearning for a slower pace didn’t stick around for long. During our trip, my wife and I stumbled upon a local festival. The highlight of the event? The annual rubber duck race!
Around 3,000 rubber ducks were dropped into the nearby river, with the first four winning a prize. Naturally, my competitive spirit kicked in, and I had to get involved! But despite my very enthusiastic cheering from the sidelines, not one of the 10 ducks I’d sponsored challenged for the top spots. They weren’t even close. Instead, they floated leisurely downstream, clearly in no hurry to get to the finish line in any kind of respectable time! Glaciers move faster!
It got me thinking about the odd relationship we have with time and speed… In a break-in situation, both are absolutely crucial. When an emergency strikes, we need to get a replacement shutter to the customer as fast as possible. A quick response means the premises aren’t left exposed, saving the business money and a whole lot of stress.
However, when it comes to the attack itself, the challenge flips. In those moments, our goal is to stretch time as much as possible. We want to slow down the criminals and give the security team or police every opportunity to catch them red-handed.
If you read my article last week, you’ll know we’re in the midst of getting our shutter doors accredited to the latest version of the BRE LPS 1175 standard. As part of this rigorous process, we sent our products to an independent testing facility, where a couple of burly guys were tasked with beating our doors to a pulp.
Patrick, the larger of the two testers, looked like he’d just stepped off the set of Gladiators! All joking aside, he was a lovely chap, although not necessarily someone I’d wish to meet in a dark alley… Each attack lasted three minutes before they switched tools and started again.
The first door tested withstood a whopping 36 minutes of relentless assault. Not bad at all. But here’s where it gets interesting… That particular shutter doesn’t even have all the bells and whistles. It lacks end retention, armed laths and other safety features you’d find on a regular Trellidor door.
In fact, we consider this door so basic, that we only offer it by special request! And yet it was still able to withstand 36 minutes of continual assault using a wide variety of implements including hammers, chisels and anything else the testers could lay their hands on from the toolbox. If our ‘basic’ shutter can hold its own against Patrick and his toolbox of terror, just imagine what our fully equipped models can do!
If you’d like to see how strong our shutter doors really are, come and visit us on stand 25 at Retail Risk – Leicester.
