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NOMPU SIZIBA: JSE-listed Trellidor has been selected to install safety devices on the London Underground rail network. Trellidor is known for its strong, secure gates. To tell us about the opportunity and how they managed to get this one in the bag, I’m joined on the line by Peter Rawson, the sales and marketing director at Trellidor. Thanks very much for joining us, Peter, and congratulations on this big contract. What installations, exactly, are you going to be helping London Underground with?

PETER RAWSON: Hi, Nompu. Thank you so much for the opportunity to chat to everyone and for the congratulations. We are ecstatic that we have landed this. We have actually been working on this project since 2002, if you can believe that.

NOMPU SIZIBA: Wow.

PETER RAWSON: They are upgrading the entire Underground. As part and parcel of that we’ve been working with them, and often in terms of what they are looking for from a retractable gate security for certain delicate areas in the Underground. So in 2017 they gave us the final challenge, which was to come up with a security gate to their specification, a plus-A emergency-escape locking system, which can only be unlocked from the one side. We managed to do that.

And then we had to jump through the hoops in terms of getting certified through a certification body in the UK. I’m delighted to say that we finally got through and we were awarded four out of 12 stations in the middle of last year, which we’ve just finished installing. It’s about 12 units at the moment, and we are waiting with bated breath for the remainder, in the full knowledge that if we can do this properly, there are over 50 other underground stations in the UK, in London.

NOMPU SIZIBA: Yes, that was going to be my next question – how many stations you could potentially be working on. But for now you are going to hopefully be working on 12 stations?

PETER RAWSON: Yes. We’ve successfully finished four of the stations, and we have virtually just done sign-off. It’s extremely successful, and they are over the moon in terms of how it has turned out. All those units were manufactured in Durban, air freighted across, and installed by our UK entity. So it’s very successful and we are very hopeful. We believe we are in line to get more. It’s obviously a long-term project and, as long as we keep behaving and improving, we should be in a good position to get some more work.

NOMPU SIZIBA: Assuming that you do get more work and it’s over a longer period of time, would that mean that you would have to hire more people in Durban, or would you have the capacity to meet the orders?

PETER RAWSON: The way this project is running up, Nompu, we probably won’t have to employ many new people. But if they come through as steadily as they have, we’ll definitely be looking to bulk up on our production side. It’s highly specialised, with a lot of outside companies producing specialised components. But we also have our eyes on obviously taking it to other markets. The product is extremely strong and has been designed for when there are situations where there are big crowds, high volumes of people – and obviously that opens up other markets like stadiums, ports, and other underground rail networks throughout Europe. So that’s where our eyes will be going. We have some contacts working on that already, and the successful completion of these four stations obviously puts us in a very good position now to positively move on and find other markets for the product.

NOMPU SIZIBA: So you are also looking, perhaps, at mainland Europe?

PETER RAWSON: Absolutely. They have their own challenges, as is well recorded, and especially with, again, a high volume of people where, if there is an emergency or an event and people are needing to exit quickly, this product is one that can certainly help. They are very conscious about certification, as you can imagine. So the LTCB certification that we have got puts us in an extremely strong position.

That’s not to say we haven’t got competition; we are used to that, and we know that we’ll be put under the test banner just to make sure that we produce, and continue innovating and doing things better.

NOMPU SIZIBA: Okay. Let’s park that on the side. Well done for all of that. But here at home, in South Africa, is there an appetite for your offering? Are people still spending on their personal security? I ask this in the context that we are always hearing that the consumer is under pressure and basically having to sacrifice things that they would ordinarily view as priorities.

PETER RAWSON: Yes, absolutely. We, like a lot of companies, are feeling the economic pressures on our target market, which is the middle to upper class of homeowners, mainly. We are involved in retail and business and offices, but we appreciate the fact that security is part of [living]. Being safe is part of our vision, and being there to help people.

We are constantly looking at opportunitues to extend our range in a way that will benefit people’s budgets and their pockets, where required, and we are seeing a big drive, in the residential markets, of people moving from standalone homes into estates and safe, secure villages. We are aware that maybe the level of security required there is not quite what it would be if you are in a standalone house.

So we are innovating, we are always looking to try and be part of the solution, and make sure that everybody who lives or works in South Africa can be safe.

NOMPU SIZIBA: Peter, thank you very much. It was lovely talking to you, and all the best with the deal in the UK.