For Warrior Doors, National Manufacturing Day provides an opportunity to celebrate something central to the Birmingham security specialist’s business: the ability to design, engineer and manufacture its own security products. National Manufacturing Day takes place on Thursday 24 September, bringing manufacturers across the country together in a Make UK initiative designed to showcase modern British industry, its people and the careers it creates.
At Warrior Doors, manufacturing capability sits particularly close to the company’s identity. Its Birmingham operation produces specialist security doors and systems for applications ranging from residential developments and public buildings to high-value retail, data centres and critical infrastructure.
Managing Director Brett Barratt believes retaining manufacturing expertise in-house has played an important role in the development of the business.
“Manufacturing is at the heart of Warrior Doors,” said Barratt. “We have spent years developing our own security technology and understanding how materials, fabrication, locking, glazing and the complete doorset work together. Having that manufacturing capability here gives our team control over the product and allows ideas from a drawing or a conversation with a customer to be developed into a finished security solution.”
Manufacturing proprietary security technology
That connection between the factory and product development is especially significant for Warrior Doors because much of its competitive advantage is built around proprietary security engineering. Its single-leaf sliding security door, for example, is designed and manufactured at the Birmingham facility around the company’s proprietary Warrior Door Technology. Warrior Doors also manufactures stainless steel security doors, alongside specialist solutions for high-value retail and other demanding environments.
The ability to manufacture in-house gives its engineers scope to refine individual elements of a product while considering the performance of the complete system.
Barratt said: “Security products are all about the detail. The materials, tolerances, fabrication, glazing and hardware have to work together. When you manufacture the product yourself, you develop an understanding of every part of it.
“That knowledge stays within the business. Our manufacturing team sees how the products develop, how they perform and how we can continue refining them.”
Warrior Doors has built much of its range around stainless steel, selected for its combination of strength, corrosion resistance and long-term durability. The company manages fabrication and other stages of production at its Birmingham operation, allowing quality to be controlled throughout manufacture.
From the Birmingham factory to independent testing
Manufacturing expertise also supports another important part of the Warrior Doors proposition: independently demonstrated security performance. The company produces doorsets certified to recognised LPS security standards and is a member of Secured by Design, the police crime prevention initiative. Its range includes products certified to LPS 2081 SRB and LPS 1175 security ratings. For Barratt, the relationship between manufacturing and certification is fundamental.
“We can develop proprietary technology and manufacture it here in Birmingham, then its security performance can be independently tested,” he said.
“That is something our team can take considerable pride in. There is a direct line between the people working in our factory, the engineering within the product and the security performance delivered for the customer.”
National Manufacturing Day has been created in part to give the public, schools and colleges greater visibility of modern manufacturing and the range of careers available within it. Make UK says UK manufacturing currently contributes £220 billion to the economy and supports 2.6 million jobs. Warrior Doors sees its own Birmingham operation as part of that wider manufacturing story, combining established fabrication skills with product development, testing and specialist security engineering.
Barratt added: “British manufacturing gives businesses like ours the opportunity to own the engineering behind what we sell. For Warrior Doors, that is incredibly important.
“Our customers are buying security technology that has been developed by our team and manufactured by people who understand exactly what the product has been designed to achieve. National Manufacturing Day is a chance to recognise those skills and the people who turn that engineering into finished products every day.”
For Warrior Doors, the value of manufacturing in Birmingham ultimately comes down to ownership of the product itself — from the first engineering decision through to the finished security system leaving the factory.
That capability continues to provide the foundation for the company’s proprietary security technology and its next generation of products.
