Roberto Fiorentino, CEO of Croma Security, speaks exclusively to SJUK about how the company plan to provide a greater range of services for its customers.
I started at an early age working with my father, who set up our business alongside my grandfather.
From the age of seven, I learnt to pick locks, cut keys and open safes with my father and then joined the business after training in electronic security.
That is when the business moved into operating with the electronic side.
Croma Security operates in the security sector, providing key cutting, locks, safes, mechanical mechanisms and electronic security, including intruder alarm systems, CCTV, access control and intercom system.
We have 17 retail outlets, with our headquarters in Whiteley on the south coast, where we provide centralised electronic security services and we also have a second electronic base in Manchester.
Our 100 staff specialise in servicing customers from hospitals, Ministry of Defence sites, Port Authority’s, schools and also the leisure industry and of course the general public, all the way from keys through to electronic security services.
In 2012 we had successfully grown the business and decided to expand into manned guarding, by buying Vigilant, however, the synergies between the two businesses were limited.
Guarding is very much a separate entity to the world of electronic security and locksmithing.
As a result, in June 2023 we decided to sell the guarding division for £6.5 million to allow us to concentrate on pursuing our strategy of buying Locksmith Stores transforming them into security centres and creating a national security brand.
And of course, selling Vigilant has given us the cash to fund our acquisition plan.
We want to create a national security brand and by acquiring locksmith stores across the country, we can build a national network of skilled operators, offering both locksmith and security services, under one-roof, to both commercial and domestic customers.
We like locksmiths as we are one too.
We also see the potential to up-skill staff and cross pollinate into electronic security.
There are hundreds of long-established locksmiths in the UK, many of whom we believe can extend their skills into the world of electronic security.
The concept is well proven, given all the individuals that have joined us, have to date been successful and they all share our passion about forming a smarter, stronger team, able to deliver a greater range of services to customers.
Many locksmiths are family run businesses and they think about selling to realise some capital to safeguard their retirement and also have the ability to continue working.
This is often combined with a general frustration around the amount of paperwork and administration that comes with running a store.
So, the opportunity to receive capital for their business but still run the shop without the excessive paperwork is attractive.
When a locksmith sells to Croma, we allow them to get back to basics.
We take all the bureaucracy and red tape away by handling the accounts, vehicles and administration.
They can then focus on the work that they are good at, which is their locksmithing business and looking after their clients.
Of course, not in every case do people want to stay with us some would rather just sell and retire, which we are of course open to.
But what we’ve noticed, is that once we put the systems and the controls in place, these owner operators feel very comfortable and many have asked if they can return to work, sometimes on a part time or a full-time basis.
As soon as you remove the headaches, they start to enjoy their work, cutting keys, picking locks, advising clients and then supplying and installing products.
And if truth be told, that’s where all the fun is.
We look at businesses with good client bases across education, health care, leisure as well as trade companies and the general public, where they have good reputations in their local community.
One of the things I find when I meet locksmiths, having been in the business from childhood, is that we usually get on well.
They’ve often been involved for decades, as have I, so we can really connect over industry history.
We can talk about Chubb 3G114 dead locks, which we all sold in droves in the 80s.
That shared experience joins us together.
They can see that we understand each other’s businesses, and can see very clearly how we can help them to continue.
So, we are interested in the businesses that think like us.
We assess through due diligence to see if businesses are viable.
If they are heavily in debt, unprofitable and don’t have a strong enough client base, then of course it may not be suitable.
However, any struggling businesses can thrive with the right support and the benefit for a lot of these owners is that their long-standing team continue to work under the Croma banner with secure employment for the future.
The Croma locksmiths are becoming the largest team of locksmiths across the country.
There’s a lot of discussions amongst branches about who holds what in stock and ideas for solving problems.
They have their own network on a WhatsApp chat group where they share ideas, support each other and help each other in solving problems.
When we take control of an operation, we almost certainly keep the existing brand.
Keeping the brand is important as it’s often a long-standing one, operating for several decades and is well known to the community.
For this reason we also aim to keep the location the same, if practical.
So typically, a locksmith who has sold to Croma will carry on operating as they were before, just with the support of our administrative systems and the broader range of products.
The vision continues to be that of acquiring good locksmith businesses, adding them to the Croma Group to move us towards national coverage of the UK.
The larger we become the better we can service commercial clients nationally, specifically those customers who have operations spread throughout the country such as retailers.
In the future I want Croma to be able supply a national brand in every town in the UK they operate in, providing the same high level of client centric service.
That to me, would be brilliant.
To that end, we’d be delighted to hear from anyone that runs a good locksmith business where they feel exactly as everyone else that we’ve spoken to does – drowning in bureaucracy, wanting to get back to basics and do the job they’re good at.
Come and talk to us, because we do believe we genuinely add value and are stronger together.
This article was originally published in the May edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.
