Chubb Fire & Security

The company was founded by Charles and Jeremiah Chubb, who patented their Chubb detector lock in 1818. The company won a government competition for a lock which could not be opened other than by its own key.[1]

In 1835, the company produced its first Chubb safe at its factory in Wolverhampton and, in the second half of the 19th century, the company expanded into the United States, and produced a time lock that was fitted to bank vaults across the country.[2] In the 1800s, Chubb gained some important customers such as the Duke of Wellington and the Bank of England.[3]

Over the next one hundred years, the company turned out more than 2.5m locks.[2] By the 1940s, Chubb expanded its operations in 17 countries. From being a single company manufacturing specialized security products it turned into a broad-based group of companies covering not only many aspects of security but fire protection as well[4].

The company went on to acquire a number of rival firms including Chatwood-Milner Ltd. (1958), Burgot Alarms Ltd and Rely-a-Bell (1962), Read and Campbell Limited (1964), Josiah Parkes and Sons Ltd. (1965) and The Pyrene Company Limited (1967).[5] It was bought by Racal Electronics in August 1984, from which it was demerged in September 1992, before being acquired by Williams Holdings in February 1997.[6] as the latter company sought to build a security-focused conglomerate. Chubb was again demerged in July 2000.[2]

In August 2000, Chubb sold Chubb Locks, its lock and safe making unit, to Assa Abloy, and concentrated on security systems such as door access and CCTV systems.[7] In May 2002, Chubb held intensive acquisitions talks with Sweden-based Securitas AB, the world's biggest security services business. After 18 months of negotiations,[8] the talks were called off on the grounds that the deal would not be "financially attractive" to either company's shareholders.[9]

In April 2003, Chubb was acquired for £622m by United Technologies Corporation.[10] In March 2007, UTC bought Initial Fire and Security, the security arm of Rentokil Initial and proceeded to merge the business and its assets with Chubb in UTC Climate, Controls & Security. In December 2013, Chubb's Australian cash in transit business was sold to Prosegur.[11]

Chubb Engineer (2008)

Chubb subsidiaries around the world now form an important part of the UTC Climate, Controls & Security Division. In Australia, Chubb security became MSS Security. This was in 2009/10. [12]

• Chubb Fire
• Chubb Locks
• Read and Campbell Limited
• Minimax Limited
• Rampart Engineering
• The Pyrene Company Limited

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chubb Security.

• Official site
• UTC Climate, Controls & Security site
• Official Website of Chubb Australia
• Official Website of Chubb Hong Kong
• Official Website of Chubbsafes Taiwan