My first used car was an old Ford club coupe. In those days I shared the road with models made by Studebaker, Packard, Willys, Henry J, Rambler and many more. All of these models were proudly made by independent manufacturers. One by one each of these car names disappeared from the scene. Smaller manufacturers did not have economy of scale advantages which companies such as Ford, GM and Chrysler enjoyed. These three large auto manufacturers are currently being pushed by even larger international companies resulting in Chrysler being purchased by Fiat.
Fast forward to the security industry and you will find a similar circumstance. Old lock favorites like Welch, Sager and Barrows disappeared long ago, never to be revived.
Profits made by large enterprises can be a positive. My current car is a 50 mile-per-gallon hybrid. My hybrid car was developed by big company research and development. Research like this is out of the reach of smaller companies.
If you look through the pages of past Locksmith Ledger issues you will find many announcements of acquisitions and mergers. A few examples include the 2015 merger of Dorma and Kaba, the 2016 acquisition of U.S. Lock by Home Depot and the 2016 acquisition of BluVision by Assa Abloy. There have been dozens of similar acquisitions in the last few years.
dormakaba Group has just announced the acquisition of Mesker Openings Group. The announcement states, "... we are a single source for products, solutions, and services related to doors and secure access to buildings and rooms."
When my old Ford coupe needed servicing, a privately owned repair shop made the repairs. When my Prius hybrid requires servicing, the only recourse is to take it to a local Toyota dealer.
There is a similar, unmistakable trend emerging here in both the automotive and security fields. Mergers and acquisitions are bridging the once unthinkable gap between product manufacturing and offering a complete list of services to end-users.
