Crosby Intruder Alarms Historical Timeline

The idea of Crosby Intruder Alarms came when one of the founding partners, the late Roy Williams was working as a television engineer in the early nineteen eighties and was told that the owner of the company that he worked for was going to retire because he could not negotiate the sale of his company and he was going to close it with the loss of all jobs.

After carrying out a lot of research into the idea, it was clear to Roy that there were two defined sales areas, the budget low end systems and the professionally fitted systems which where compliant with BS4737 which was the British Standard applicable to Security Systems at the current time.

As Roy was a firm believer in quality, he decided that he only wanted to fit quality systems which were compliant with BS4737.

Because both Roy and his business partner where both still in full time employment, all profits made where re-invested back into the company. This gave them the capital to invest in items of equipment to improve the level of service that they could offer. A substantial amount of money was devoted to the purchase of a private mobile radio system. This allowed communication from the base station and between the vehicles. This has now been enhanced with Mobile Phones.

During this time Roy and his business partner used their time to develop their sales and installation skills and always took great pride over their work. The ability to hide cables, refit carpets etc are skills that can only be developed with practice.

Roy and Ann’s son, Gareth was born at this point Roy still had a full time job and headed up the Special Security Products Division for a National Security Distribution Company, this involved working away a lot so Crosby Intruder Alarms work was still carried out at evenings and weekends.

Crosby Intruder Alarms decided it was time that they needed an office. An Office was rented in Handfield Road, Waterloo.

When carrying out installations, Roy, posted cards at neighbouring properties apologising to neighbours for the disturbance, by doing this it
led to further business.

Roy designed a bespoke Wireless Alarm System “Vanguard” which was designed for Holiday Parks.

The first system was installed at Loch Lomond Holiday Park in Scotland and then further installations followed at Ardlui Holiday Park and Glen Dochart Holiday Park, Scotland.

Crosby Intruder Alarms completed a large project for Simonswood Parish Council. Crosby Intruder Alarms carried out the installation project that covered 98% of the Parish’s residents. It was believed that Simonswood Parish Council where the first Parish Council to sponsor a community CCTV Project.

Crosby Intruder Alarms purchased 3 liveried vans (Renault Trafic’s). These replaced the cars and an additional one for a new member of staff.

This saw Roy and Ann start off Crosby Electrical Services (North West) Limited, which involved purchasing the assets of a bankrupt Electrical Contractors within Crosby. Roy and Ann held 50% of the share between them and where fundamental in obtaining contracts with Ethel Austin, Global Video  and Tesco Express. Roy and Ann also assisted with the growth of this company to over 15 staff.

During this year we where successful in obtaining contracts with several local authorities and housing associations. This was to carry out repairs to Door Entry Systems and Access Control Systems at various
properties across the North West.

We took over the Maintenance Contracts from a company based in Scotland within the North West and North Wales Region. The majority of these jobs where systems that had been installed originally by Scottish Power/Manweb. Quite a few of these customers still hold contracts with us today.

Roy and Ann’s business partner in Crosby Electrical Services (North West) Limited said he wanted to run the business alone. Roy accepted an offer and sold his shares in the company. Unfortunately, the business went bankrupt and ceased trading a short time afterwards.

However, Crosby Intruder Alarms remained as strong as ever and then occupied the full building at 20 Endbutt Lane.

We obtained the contract with a company called Perfect Home and completed around 15 installations for them. We held this contract until 2010 and only lost it because we didn’t offer Fire Extinguishers.

This year saw us complete an installation for the Property Development company in Virginia Water, Surrey. The house sold for £11.5m and was viewed by some celebrities. We also completed the design and 1 st fix of another large project in Wentworth, Surrey as well as installations in Bath.

The company continued to grow under the leadership of Roy and Ann. Installations continued throughout the UK and we continued to grow as a company.

We upgraded our phone system in our office. We removed our out-dated ISDN Telephone lines and went over to a “Hosted IP Phone System”. Not only did this save us a large amount of money, it meant that we could work from any location and make and receive calls as if we were in our office. This was something that allowed Roy and Ann to spend more time away from the business but still remain contactable if required.

2017 was a sad year for Crosby Intruder Alarms as our long standing Operations Manager, Peter Grossmith sadly lost his battle with Cancer and passed away on 4th January at Woodlands Hospice. Peter had been instrumental over the years with the success and growth of Crosby Intruder Alarms and he left a massive gap in our company. Following, Peter’s sad death, Gareth was offered the position of Operations Manager which he gladly accepted.

During this year we decided to invest over £11,000 in a software package to move away from paper-based job reports. After much research, we decided on WinSIMS which is a software package bespoke to our industry. This also allowed our engineers to use an App called Reach! which allows them to complete jobs on their Smart Phone and send them back to the office electronically. This means we can be more efficient and it also allows the engineers to see job history from previous visits all off their phone.

During this year, we decided to replace 2 of our vans for Pickup Trucks. These had bespoke drawer systems fitted for security of stock and a canopy accessible from the back and sides. We also saw the business expand into other areas such as WiFi Systems and Small Home Automation jobs using Amazon Alexa.

However, as for many, this was an incredibly hard and difficult year for Crosby Intruder Alarms. Roy, became unwell on the same day Grace was born and we were placed into Lock Down shortly before this. Roy was worried that the business would have to close for good, but Gareth and Ann were determined to put a plan together to keep us going as strong as we could.

However, Roy’s health deteriorated rapidly and shortly after he was admitted to hospital and placed into an Induced Coma. He sadly passed away on 17 th April. Both Ann, Lyndsay and Gareth had their whole world turned upside down. A loving boss, husband, father and grand father had been taken away from us all, not only this Gareth had a new born baby at home and a business still to run. We had to make some changes and sadly furlough some of our staff as work dried up and we put plans in place to operate safely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Gareth and Ann were adamant they wanted to safeguard all of their staff’s jobs, something we were proud to have both achieved.

During the Pandemic, we placed installations on hold, quotations were done remotely and we only attended emergencies. Our office closed and we operated from home.

Ann asked Gareth, if he would take on the role as a Partner in the business and as of the 1st August, he became a Partner of Crosby Intruder Alarms.

We completed a large number of installations for the Paint Company, installing over 12 systems this year. All of these installations use Orisec’s equipment a manufacturer that we work very close with.

We celebrate 40 years in business on 2nd January. We would like to thank all of our staff, customers and suppliers, both past and present for all of their support. We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them.