Sentry Doors is growing fast, driven by an absolute commitment to compliance and quality, its Managing Director, Ty Aziz, tells IFSJ.

Tell us about the legacy of Sentry and process of innovation over the last 33 years of existence…
In the last couple of years however, the company has seen a step change in growth. First, we received considerable new investment from our partner, Cairngorm Capital. This enabled us to invest in our manufacturing facilities — new CNC machines, new paint lines, as well as the advancement of an additional facility across the road. We’ve also invested in testing, compliance, and accreditation — all the hallmarks our customers associate with Sentry Doors.

Most importantly though, we have invested in our people — bringing in new expertise to work alongside the existing management team and production staff to ensure that Sentry has the right resources to take it from strength to strength. This has resulted in new customers, typically housing associations, local authorities and their contractors who see the considerable benefits of our bespoke timber doorsets as they replace non-compliant fire doors. By choosing Sentry, customers always know they have the highest standards of certification in their fire doorset partner.

Reflecting that growth is the new look and feel of the Sentry logo which you might have seen out and about or online. We like to think of it as ‘same great company but with an updated look and feel’. We have a new website, new brochures to showcase our range of certified fire doorsets, as well as our certification portfolio to make it easy for customers to immediately focus on the testing or accreditation required — and you can even visit our factory virtually online. We’d rather people came in person though – the quality of our manufacturing really speaks for itself, plus we’re a friendly bunch.

Looking to the immediate future, Sentry has a stand at the upcoming Fire Safety Event in early April at the NEC. We’ll all be there, meeting customers old and new, and we’d love to tell everyone the Sentry story. It’s something we’re really proud of.

A great example of innovation was the ‘timber doors’ that were on display at Intersec 2022 which were high spec, and purpose-built fire doors. Tell us about the research and development of your products?

Sentry is a specialist provider of bespoke timber FD30s, FD60s doorsets, screens, and fanlights – that’s all we manufacture and consequently, we like to think we are experts! Every single doorset that leaves our factory is made specifically for a particular aperture — in order to ensure the highest safety standards and customer care, we manufacture each product specifically for an individual address, with a comprehensive choice of paint finish, glazing, security and ironmongery to complement it. Our Research & Development takes place at our facility in Doncaster, but it always has customers at its heart — we work closely with them to respond to their requirements. Budgets are whatever is required to keep us at the top of our industry.

Designed to offer peace of mind, our FD30s and FD60s doorsets undergo independent testing and approval from BM TRADA and Certifire standards. Both are certified by Secured by Design, and we are one of the few companies nationally to have achieved dual certification (Q-Mark Fire Door Manufacture and Q-Mark Enhanced Security) for both our FD30s and FD60s flat entrance doorsets. We were also the first fire and security door set manufacturer to hold the new UKCA mark, as certified by UK-approved body BM Trada. The standards, certification and compliance can be a complicated subject however, so we aim to provide ease via our certification portfolio, and we are always on hand to guide customers to ensure peace of mind.

Tell us about some of your major geographical markets, and expansion plans for 2022?
Sentry has a history of serving London boroughs and their contractors — we’ve been involved in manufacturing fire safety doorsets for many of the major replacement programmes in the capital’s housing stock both pre and post the dreadful events of Grenfell. We also work widely across the rest of the UK — we have ongoing projects in the north of England, Scotland and the across the South-East. Let me put it another way: if you’ve got a project that requires fire safety doors in the UK, you ought to be partnering with Sentry! 

What are some major trends in the fire door market, and what can we learn from them?
The trend is clearly towards ensuring only the highest standards of fire protection: that means timber because of its clear safety advantages over other materials, it means bespoke, because UK housing stock is diverse and not standardised like other markets.

Most importantly, it is about making sure that the choice you make is tested to the extreme and then certified to show that the specific doorset will protect people in the face of disaster. Those who specify and procure fire doors are absolutely committed to avoiding another disaster, and so is Sentry. That’s not so much a trend as the only right way, of course.

Sentry had previously predicted a 30% increase of “production operatives over the next 12 months”. How confident are you about your growth in 2022?

We’re growing really fast, and we are looking for more great people who share our ethos to join us: it could be more than 30% in 2022 and beyond. We are consistently recruiting in our factory, training, and developing people to achieve our manufacturing quality through open days, via our website and more. As more and more customers understand the benefits of the Sentry solution, we have invested in another CNC and a new paint line as well as expanding into our capacity across the road from our main factory. We also have opportunities in business development, customer service and more — so anyone who shares our values and wants to be part of the exciting Sentry story, do get in touch. 

In conclusion, I would like to tell your reader: Sentry is growing from strength to strength as the secure choice in fire safety doorsets. We look forward to meeting people from across our industry at the Fire Safety Event — we’ll have a prominent stand but do please contact us if you would like to book an appointment in advance. It will be great to tell you the Sentry story in person.