THE future of a pioneering access management business has never been brighter.

Worcester-based The Key Safe Company, which supplies police preferred key safes and security products, has secured several industry awards nominations.

Led by innovator David Ogden, whose catalogue of key safe inventions has revolutionised social care to name just one sector, Key Safe has been shortlisted for Entrepreneurial Business of the Year: up to £10m in the inaugural Security & Safety Entrepreneur Awards while David is up for Entrepreneur of the Year.

The winners will be announced at The Security Event at the NEC from April 30 to May 2 where Key Safe will exhibit some of its latest products.

And, just for good measure, the company has also been nominated for Employer of the Year in the 2024 Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce Awards.

Irrespective of whether his company wins, the nominations are further validation, were it needed, that David made the right vocational decision as an inquisitive youngster growing up on the southerly outskirts of Birmingham.

Leaning on his entrepreneurial spirit, David would select items from his engineer father’s toolbox and sell them to his friends at school.

He and a friend acquired a photocopier which they used to print off flyers for the local chip shop and other small businesses in Rubery in what became a lucrative next venture.

David’s seminal moment in business came when he began to import key safes from US firm Supra as a sideline to his then-day job of selling Snap-on tools to garage mechanics.

He has sold more than £100 million worth of products since launching The Key Safe Company in 1996.

Based at Nunnery Park, Key Safe now employs around 30 people.

The business was originally geared towards the automotive industry, helping fleet managers and rental firms keep track of car keys.

But in recent years the company’s market-leading, police preferred products have been snapped up by more organisations within the care industry.

“We’re the only fully-active key safe company in the world really,” David said.

“We exist because there was a problem and I’ve solved it.

“Storing keys outside buildings to allow services to be delivered was a problem and it’s still a problem today.

"One of the most powerful scenarios is helping emergency services gain access to a secure home.

“If someone was to say ‘What’s the best thing you’ve done in your career or life?’, that’s the one for me.”

One particular product, the ark Tamo, is the world’s first mechanical key safe with more than nine million combinations.

It has achieved the highest Secured by Design police preferred security rating in its class from the Loss Prevention Certification Board.

The firm’s robust, ultra-advanced key safes don’t just boast day-to-day convenience, they are quite literally helping to save lives.

“By working with the Telecare Services Association (TSA), enabling emergency call centres to store key safe info, they can share codes with the relevant people,” David added.

“That’s really powerful to me — to be saving lives. Enabling the GP to get in, the district nurse, carers, doctors, paramedics.

"Changing the way the care industry operates, forever, is the biggest success for me.

“I’ve saved social care a fortune because they would have to pick the bill up for people’s front doors being knocked down so paramedics can access.

"They would then have to put that person in a secure home overnight, maybe a hospital bed, because they’ve got nowhere else to put them and it’s not secure for them to be at home.”

David’s disruption of the industry mirrors, in some ways, the actions of his motorsport idol Sir Jackie Stewart.

The Flying Scot made headlines as a three-time Formula One world champion driver.

And, as a creative thinker and innovator, his calls to better protect drivers forged a lasting impact on the sport’s safety regulations.

“He was my hero,” David said. “The (motorsport) industry was full of naysayers about people dying unnecessarily and they said ‘Well it’s part of the sport’. They said he was retiring because he was scared of dying.

“Sir Jackie didn’t retire because he was scared of dying. He retired to improve the safety of his sport for the future. He actually spent the rest of his life trying to improve the safety of vehicles.

“He was a pioneer because he kicked those standards off. He thought outside of the convention and that is what I have tried to do to some extent.”

A huge petrolhead, David likes to ride in vintage cars at circuits across the country.

He recently raced around Goodwood in the type of Longbridge-made Mini David may well have worked on himself had his entrepreneurial drive not diverted him down a different track.

The Key Safe Company actively encourages people with questions about its many products to get in touch.

Information on how to do so can be found at https://keysafe.co.uk/