In a quiet corner of Birmingham’s industrial heartland, far from the glossy marketing of big tech, Warrior Doors is quietly building some of the most advanced stainless steel security doors in the UK. These are not generic door sets with a beefed-up lock; they are engineered, certified security systems designed for data centres, critical infrastructure and high-risk public buildings where failure is not an option.
“These are not normal doors in the traditional sense,” says Managing Director Brett Barratt. “We build certified security products that happen to look like doors. Their job is to make sure very bad things don’t happen to very important assets.”
From that premise, Warrior Doors has carved out a specialist role: manufacturing stainless steel and fully glazed aluminium doorsets that provide LPS 1175 SR2 and SR3 certified protection, including rare SR3-rated sliding doors and fully glazed SR2/SR3 door sets used in data centres and secure facilities across the UK.
The rise of AI, cloud computing and high-density data centres has created a new class of physical risk. Server halls, plant rooms and secure operation spaces are now as strategically important as any traditional piece of national infrastructure. That, Brett argues, has fundamentally changed what a “front door” needs to do.
“In a modern data centre, the threat is very specific,” he explains. “You’re worried about targeted intrusion, hostile reconnaissance, vehicle attacks, insider threats. A standard commercial door that’s never been near a test rig is nowhere near enough. You need proven, repeatable performance.”
Warrior Doors’ range for data centres and critical infrastructure reflects that reality. The company manufactures stainless steel security doors for plant rooms and back-of-house areas, fully glazed SR2 and SR3 aluminium doors for staff and visitor entrances, and SR3-rated sliding doors designed for high-flow technical facilities and interlocking security lobbies.
Sliding doors are increasingly favoured by data centre operators for their space efficiency, high-traffic capability and suitability for mantrap systems. “An SR3 sliding door is ideal in a data centre lobby,” says Brett. “You’re getting certified resistance to sustained attack, but you also keep people and equipment moving without bottlenecks.”
All of Warrior Doors’ stainless steel security doors are designed and manufactured at its Birmingham facility. Stainless steel fabrication, glazing, powder coating and hardware integration are carried out under one roof, with every door undergoing checks and test procedures before dispatch.
“For us, oversight is everything,” Brett says. “If that door is going into a data centre, a defence site or a critical public building, I want to know exactly what steel went into it, how it was welded, how the glazing was installed and how the hardware was set up. You can’t outsource accountability.”
That vertically integrated model allows Warrior Doors to respond to specific risk profiles and site conditions. Doors are made to measure for each opening, designed around the customer’s access control and monitoring systems, and tailored to different zones within the facility—from main personnel entrances and secure operations rooms to plant rooms, loading bays and internal circulation points.
Critically, the company has developed a rare capability in the UK: fully glazed SR2 and SR3 door sets. These combine high-performance security glazing with slender framing profiles, giving security teams clear sightlines and excellent CCTV coverage without sacrificing certified anti-intrusion performance.
“Historically, if you wanted SR3, you expected something chunky, opaque and ugly,” Brett notes. “We’ve worked hard to prove you can have high security and high visibility in the same door set. In a control environment like a data centre, that visibility is a security feature in its own right.”
In an industry that’s increasingly driven by compliance, Warrior Doors leans heavily on independent testing and transparent documentation. Its stainless steel security sliding doors are tested by LPCB at BRE to LPS 1175 and LPS 2081 standards and listed in the LPCB Red Book. The company is also a Secured by Design member, with many of its doorsets forming part of SBD-approved specifications.
“I’m a big believer that you shouldn’t have to take a manufacturer’s word for anything,” Brett says. “If we say a door is SR3, you should be able to download the certificate, check the Red Book listing and see exactly what was tested.”
For consultants, security specifiers and operators of high-risk facilities, that level of transparency has become a key differentiator. It allows them to demonstrate due diligence to insurers, regulators and internal risk committees, while giving assurance that the installed product matches the tested specification.
The growth of UK and European data centres has sharpened the focus on physical security. Facilities that were once relatively anonymous industrial buildings now sit firmly on the radar of organised crime and hostile actors. According to Brett, the nature of the risk means that the physical envelope deserves the same level of rigour as the cyber side.
“Everyone is used to talking about firewalls and cyber resilience,” he says. “But if someone can tailgate through a weak entrance, force a plant room door or ram a vehicle into a poorly protected loading bay, your cyber controls might not get the chance to do anything. Physical and digital security are now two halves of the same equation.”
Warrior Doors’ projects in this sector typically combine different door types within a layered security strategy: SR2 or SR3 fully glazed doors at main staff entrances, stainless steel doors for secure internal zones and plant areas, SR3 sliding doors within interlocking lobbies, and doors integrated into vehicle mitigation schemes at service and loading areas.
The common denominator is that each doorset is engineered for the specific threat level and mode of operation—whether that’s twenty-four-hour staff access, contractor traffic, or tightly controlled entry to secure operation rooms and rack floors.
Part of Warrior Doors’ mission is educational: helping operators understand the gap between a certified security door and a standard commercial doorset.
“A lot of people think they’ve bought a ‘strong’ door because it feels heavy,” Brett says. “But if it’s never been near an LPS 1175 test, you simply don’t know how it will behave under attack.”
LPS 1175 SR2 and SR3 doors are tested against defined tool sets and attack durations, providing a measurable level of resistance to forced entry. Warrior Doors’ stainless steel data centre doors and sliding doors are built around that performance, with reinforced frames, certified hardware and glazing systems designed to resist sustained, knowledgeable attack.
Standard doors, by contrast, typically offer minimal intrusion resistance and are rarely tested to recognised security standards. They may incorporate basic glazing or solid panels that create blind spots and provide no certified protection against attack.
“You wouldn’t protect a multi-million-pound server room with a filing cabinet lock,” Brett says. “But that’s effectively what you’re doing if your entrance door has never been independently tested.”
For data centre and critical infrastructure operators, doors are no longer just barriers—they are nodes in a broader access control and monitoring network. Warrior Doors designs its stainless steel and aluminium door sets with that integration in mind.
“Our doors are built around access control, biometrics and monitoring from day one,” Brett explains. “We’ll talk to the client’s security integrator and build in what they need—be that encrypted card readers, biometrics, forced-door monitoring, interlock logic or integration with CCTV and audio.”
SR3 sliding doors and security lobbies are engineered for anti-tailgating and mantrap configurations, using interlocks, timed sequences and occupancy controls to prevent unauthorised users following staff or contractors into secure zones. At the same time, doors are designed for high-cycle operation, with hardware and mechanisms selected for continuous 24/7 use.
“Data centres don’t switch off at five o’clock,” Brett says. “If a door is part of a mission-critical route, it has to work perfectly at three in the morning on a bank holiday, just like it does on a Monday lunchtime.”
Beyond pedestrian access, Warrior Doors is increasingly involved in schemes where doors form part of wider perimeter and vehicle mitigation strategies. That might include integrating security doors into protected entry vestibules, airlocks behind bollards, or secure loading and service entrances where vehicles are screened and controlled.
“The door is often the last stage in a sequence of checks,” Brett notes. “You might have automatic number plate recognition, barriers, bollards and human checks outside. By the time a person reaches the door, you want to be absolutely certain that the envelope they’re passing through is as strong as the rest of the system.”
Stainless steel doorsets can be specified with additional protection for high-risk plant rooms and service areas, ensuring that a vulnerable back-of-house access point does not undermine high security at the main entrance.
Behind the engineering, Warrior Doors’ Birmingham base remains central to its identity. The company recruits locally and develops skills in stainless steel fabrication, assembly and finishing, often bringing in trainees who grow into specialist roles.
“Birmingham has a proud manufacturing heritage,” Brett says. “We’re tapping into that mindset—people who take pride in making something real, something that protects their own communities as well as national infrastructure.”
The company continues to invest in production capability, process control and testing, with an eye on increasing demand from data centre operators, housing providers, high-value retailers and public sector clients who require demonstrable, certified security performance.
As the UK expands its digital infrastructure, Brett believes the role of manufacturers like Warrior Doors will only become more critical.
“The reality is that our doors are protecting the places where the modern economy lives,” he says. “Whether that’s a data centre, a secure public building or critical infrastructure, you need the physical security to match the digital risk.”
His advice to operators is direct: treat physical security with the same seriousness as cyber. Demand certification. Check the Red Book listings. Ask for Secured by Design. And understand that not all doors are created equal.
“In ten years’ time, we want Warrior Doors to be the name people associate with serious, independently verified door security,” Brett concludes. “If it protects data, money or people, we want to be the first call.”
