protector lock key duplication

[Gary Stephenson]

If you click on the grade 2 to 13 vault doors smp site link, it brings up Fichet Bauche, which is interesting.

[Huw Eastwood]

that's odd Gary, it'd be strange enough to have fichet's products listed on smp's site, but to have a direct link to fichet is handing it to gunnebo on a silver plate.!

It always puzzled me why Stacke in germany were the only manufacturer to make a grade 13 door. All the others and the gunnebo brands only made to grade 12.
But now for some reason they are all offering grade 13s.

[Gary Stephenson]

Yes I thought it strange as well, I suspected SMP would be rebadging someone else's, rather than making their own and putting them through testing. But wasn't expecting the Fichet link

[Gary Stephenson]

unless SMP has a deal with FBH rather than Gunnebo?

[Huw Eastwood]

It's beyond me tbh, from what i recall SMP were taken over by the Associated group ages ago, and they also acquired the SLS name around the same time.
For a while it seemed they were using the SLS badge more for luxury aimed stuff and custom units, while the SMP ranges continued as the bread and butter.That's how it seemed to me back then, but no idea if that's exactly right or whether that's how it is now.

Didn't even know FBH were split from gunnebo- going back when I was still in trade countless brands like FBH Fichet, Rosengrens, Tann, Chubb, Churchill etc were all swallowed under the gunnebo umbrella.

Also iirc they were sitting dormant on ownership of other brand names like Lips and Garny from memory, but again that's going back so some may have been split or sold off by now.

Grade 13 EX door- no thanks. give me a 50 year old Chubb 33 inch treasury door with a 2 foot thick slab of TDR anytime before any modern offering- in some ways it all reminds me of the demise of Concorde!

[Gary Stephenson]

as far as I know Fichet and FBH had an agreement prior to Gunnebo Acquiring the 50 ish percent of fichet that they owned, so despite them being part of the group, Gunnebo officially had to buy from FBH in the UK

[Huw Eastwood]

I'd forgotten some were only part owned- that sounds a bit of a mess- did the arrangement work?

[Gary Stephenson]

not really for Gunnebo, we should have been able to buy Fichet spares for pennies from group, but our hands were tied, having to go through FBH.
Got a 2nd hand lock from them once (about 600 quid if I remember right)body only, as dial and spindle were too short for a 16 inch door. lock failed after less than a month, and they wouldn't warranty it (as they didn't fit it), I repaired it anyway, they seemed a bit clueless to be honest

[Huw Eastwood]

My experience doing third party work needing spares was pretty much the same Gary, but then I was a total 'outsider'!

Spanish Inquisition spread over 2 weeks to buy two M2b's, keyed to differ, two 15cm keys each, and the price was eye watering, about £300+ vat each, and this was back in the late nineties.

The last time I dealt with them was years later (but still a long time ago)for their super duper key lock- was it the M3i or M3b back then, cant remember exactly.

On the phone I was told clearly I couldn't have one- not at any price, as I wasn't an FBH registered contractor and was outside their network.
He then asked me how much experience I had of working on their stuff and I told him, he then starts thinking about it, ummed and ahhed for about five mins and then said they were actually stuck for a network engineer to cover our area, and would I be interested in taking it on....but I still couldn't buy the lock!!

Never dealt with them again after that. That famous fast food chain had some fichet stuff but luckily all the ones I saw for SMP in my area had their own graded dual units, so thankfully never had to suffer the FBH pantomime's again.

[Gary Stephenson]

yes, not surprising that people just converted them, instead of playing silly buggers with them.