Working with Single-Facility Owners

Settle three numbers before you ask for a price

Most quotation delays on single-facility orders come from three unknowns. Resolve them first and the quotation usually takes one exchange:

1. How many units need a lock — not the total unit count, the count that actually needs hardware now. Vacant units and units already locked are a separate decision.
2. The cylinder size or the door type. If your doors take a cylinder, the bore size decides everything. Measure across the cylinder face, or send a photograph with a ruler in frame.
3. Keyed or combination. This is an operating decision, not a hardware one: it decides who holds keys, who replaces them, and how much staff time a move-out costs.

Buying spares is not waste

Single-facility buyers often order exactly the number of units they have, then discover the gaps afterwards: a unit is rekeyed after a dispute, a lock is cut off and destroyed, a door is replaced, a tenant loses the only key.

A modest spares allowance — a small percentage of the total, held on site — usually costs less than one emergency reorder with its freight. The exact figure depends on how often you rekey and how many units stand vacant, so it is worth asking your supplier what other single-site operators hold.

Small orders are still orders

The most common reason a small buyer walks away is not price. It is an MOQ that arrives unannounced, or a stated MOQ that turns out to be higher once a specific configuration is chosen.

Two things make this manageable. Ask what the minimum is for the configuration you actually want — plain versus customised, keyed alike versus keyed different — because the two numbers are often different. And start with a sample: a physical sample confirms fit and finish before you commit to a quantity, and it is the cheapest step in the whole order.

Where single-facility buyers usually lose money

• Matching an old cylinder by eye. 17 mm and 19 mm look similar on a photograph and are not interchangeable in a door.
• Mixing materials across the site. Buying SS201 for covered corridors and then using the same part on exposed drive-up units, where it will not last as long.
• No key plan. Ordering keyed-alike locks for units that later need to be separated, or ordering keyed-different locks with no spare manager key.
• Ordering without a spares allowance, then paying express freight for a handful of locks.

What we typically see

Single-facility enquiries usually fall into two shapes: a new facility buying its first batch, and an established site replacing hardware that has reached the end of its life.

The new facility is usually straightforward once the door measurement is settled. The established site is where the surprises are — an earlier supplier may have fitted a size that does not match the original specification, or two phases of the site may use different cylinders. Both are why we confirm fit with a sample rather than a drawing.

How to start

Send three things: a photograph of the door, the number of units you need to cover, and whether you want keys or combinations. We will confirm the size, send a sample if the fit is not certain, and quote the configuration you asked for — including what the minimum is for that configuration.