August already! Don’t panic, it will soon be Christmas.
I have just got back from ST22 in Manchester and what a hot couple of days we have had, and I literally mean hot. Thankfully the hotel had air conditioning so we were able to stay nice and fresh. At the charity dinner the night before we raised a massive £3,000 for the charity which was Head Up the mental health charity for the armed forces community. This is a new charity and as I told the diners, this was the first time they have been out raising funds so I am so chuffed we managed to get them off to a good start. As on every occasion none of that would have been possible if it wasn’t for those that donated the raffle prizes, those that help sell those raffle tickets and all those in the room that bought them of course.
We also had a small auction which was a weekend break for two for a three night stay in Madrid, flights and hotel were included that was given to us by Steve Norman from the access control and biometrics company ZKTeco. The successful bidder was Mike Gillespie from Advent IM who happened to also be the person to nominate the charity. Were you there and did we catch you on camera, like the Suprema stand here? You can answer the first question but to answer the second, nip over to our website and click on the gallery to see the pictures. We all love a good picture.
Thanks to everyone for your kind generosity. If you missed us the next stop is Ireland, namely Belfast on Tuesday, September 6, and Dublin on the Thursday, where as a matter of fact we will be for the first time since 2019. When that happens we’ll know we have finally gone back to normal after covid. Hope to see you all out there. I also attended in early July an event in Westminster Abbey, much more of a grander place than a hotel like what we use of course but that was a very informative meeting, more about that on page 64 of the August print magazine.
Mayflex has appointed Rhys Jones as account manager for converged technology, which is what that distributor is all about, with an emphasis on IP security. Rhys joins from QED, another distribution company, where he was for the last five years in sales management and business development roles. Simon Steer, Director of Sales for Security at Mayflex said Rhys has great knowledge of a variety of access control, CCTV systems and infrastructure which will be key to supporting customers in his area. Namely, in Cumbria, the north east and Yorkshire, with internal support from Jessika Corbett and Peter Male on projects. And just to give a shout to their key security brands; they include Avigilon, Axis, HikVision, Milestone, Mobotix, Paxton, Suprema, Wavestore; and recently launched Pelco.
Stephen Marsh at ADI has just changed roles, I assume that’s a promotion? Anyway he has now become key account manager, does that mean he looks after the keys? Ha, but seriously, now he has been at ADI for almost four years. I first met him with Dallmeier, then he moved on to ADT.
Device Smart, a Milton Keynes company developing security light deterrents was founded by Jason Hill at the beginning of the pandemic and the magazine featured him in our October 2021 print edition. They have moved offices in Milton Keynes. This sees their technology and business being developed in a graded II listed building (not something you associate with MK?) on Wolverton Estate. Device Smart are developing products that are energy efficient and sustainable as well as growing in international markets.
Assa Abloy has finalised the acquisition of Arran Isle Limited, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of door and window hardware in the UK, Ireland and Europe. The acquisition has undergone full regulatory approval by both the Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) in the UK and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in Ireland. Arran Isle has some 560 employees, with sites in UK, the Republic of Ireland, the Continent and China. Arran Isle mainly trades under the brands of Carlisle Brass and Mila. Businesses within the Arran Isle group date back as far as 1971. Assa Abloy have also acquired Caldwell Manufacturing, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of hardware for the fenestration industry. That acquisition includes Caldwell Hardware UK, in Coventry, but excludes Cotswold Architectural Hardware.
Johnson Controls has announced the acquisition of Tempered Networks a cyber risk management company that reduces cyber risks by providing point and click identity-based micro-segmentation. Tempered Networks has created ‘Airwall’ technology, that they described as a self-defence system for buildings that enables secure network access across diverse groups of endpoint devices, edge gateways, cloud platforms and service technicians.
And just a line to confirm that in July Securitas was granted the required regulatory approvals for the acquisition of Stanley Security as announced on December 8, 2021.
