Figure 1. Kaba Ilco’s factory is located in Rocky Mount, NC. the products and still anticipate the fu- ture. Some call this innovation. His success continued over the years, and the company delved into other areas as well. Fiſty-one years later, Bauer AG also began steel furniture fabrication. But, because of poor geographic and product- related diversification, Bauer was acquired in 1915 by Leo Bodmer, CEO of Brown, Boveri & Cie. Three years later, they ac- quired a knitting mill and transformed the premises into a lock-making factory. In 1934, the fabrication of the KaBa se- curity cylinder (with patent applied for) began — a monumental time for Kaba. It was then that the Kaba 8, the world’s first reversible dimple key, was created. This international revolutionary concept was a true milestone at the time and is still the basis for Kaba’s current — but more sophisticated — dimple key designs. The world followed. In 1968, the first sales and production operations were estab- lished via the headquarters in Switzer- land, with additional locations in Austria and England. A joint venture in Japan began in 1974. Returning our focus to America, Lori Locks in Southington, Connecticut, was the American subsidiary of Kaba of Swit- zerland. In 1991, Kaba decided to sell WWW.ALOA.ORG Figure 3. The factory produces millions of key blanks weekly. the standard lock production segment at the Lori operation and Lori was then renamed Kaba High Security Locks, Inc. It was also in 1991 that a U.S. patent was granted on a new and ingenious key that contained “peaks” necessary to acti- vate a related locking cylinder. That was the birth of affordable high security. Pat- ented key control focusing on preventing unauthorized key duplication coupled with patented and affordable high se- curity cylinders became a trend across the country. Finally, a company had ad- dressed key control and high security needs in a cost-effective manner. With the inclusion of retrofitability, Kaba has be- come — and remains — one of the mar- ket leaders in high security solutions for end users. In addition to the United States, Kaba also maintains a network of factories in Switzerland, Japan, Austria, England, France, Germany, Malaysia, Spain and Sweden. Sales reps are even more wide- spread and are also in countries such as China, Finland, Hungary, India, Israel, Russia, Africa and Australia. In 2001, Kaba acquired The Unican Group. The merging of these access con- trol industry leaders has resulted in the creation of a worldwide provider of access solutions. Ilco-Unican is now the Kaba- APRIL 2019 KEYNOTES 35 Figure 2. The milling process is shown.
