About ATG Access

ATG Access started life with just two employees and a workbench under a set of stairs. Two plucky employees started producing mild-steel, telescopic and fixed security bollards in a bid to protect residential driveways from vehicle theft. This product development was a response to a spate of vehicle thefts which has targeted the North West of the U.K at the time.

After serving the residential market and bringing peace of mind to homeowners in the North West; the two original masterminds were approached by another company to form a company called ‘Vehicle Protection Security Posts Ltd (VPSP)’.

This company had joined with the two originators in response to a government request to produce an automated bollard for installation within the U.K. public highway. This request was successful, and the first automatic rising bollards were innovated and tested within a pilot site in Cambridge.

VPSP had achieved much success with their pioneering traffic management systems and had managed to secure contracts with many major city councils across the UK. Liverpool, Manchester and Cambridge being three of the first cities to adopt this technology to control bus lanes and pedestrianise areas. This engineering capability had caught the eye of the ATG Group who acquired VPSP in 1994.

Innovation and engineering prowess remained at the heart of ATG. Following the Glasgow Airport and British Embassy in Istanbul attacks; ATG was approached by the British Government to begin what the US market had already started; certifying an automated bollard to withstand a vehicle impact.

ATG built on their existing technology which had already been developed for traffic management systems to produce a much stronger version for test. It was in 2005 when ATG achieved their first dead stop of a 7.5-tonne truck and successfully gained PAS 68 accreditation.

Glenn Cooper, Heather Cooper and Robert Ball (CoBaCo House) completed a management buy-out of the business and ATG Access gained independence from the ATG Group. Glenn and Heather utilised their extensive experience in export markets to drive ATG Access forward to secure their first export contracts in the Middle East, Singapore & Malaysia.

Robert Ball, ATG’s Engineering Director (still to this day) was the brain behind the market-leading product innovations. Robert took this chance to drive ATG Access forward and lead the UK market on high-security, certified product solutions.

In response to a very challenging client project, the first shallow foundation bollards were developed and tested. This symbolised a step-change in the industry and one which facilitated the securing of urban public realm projects – keeping people safe within crowded spaces and critical national infrastructure.

No longer were perimeter security products only utilised on brown sites and remote military bases.

ATG Access acquired the physical perimeter security divisions of Allen Vanguard in Canada and of Boon Edam in the US, going on to form ATG Access Inc. A direct, ATG Access office in North Carolina was opened and manufacturing under license facilities was established.

This was a significant change in ATG’s product supply and allowed the company to manufacture and supply larger-scale security projects with dual manufacturing facilities.

Further developments in ATG Access’s export market and supply chain allowed ATG to win the largest ever, physical security project to date. A $9.6 million order to protect the New Doha International Airport in Qatar (Hamad International Airport). This was the first true example of the scalability and success of ATG’s global supply chain strategy.

After working with key stakeholders for over 3 years, ATG Access was awarded a major contract to test and develop bespoke solutions for the physical security protecting the London 2012 Olympics. This client led development saw the innovation of surface mounted technology to protect sites which had a threat profile for just 8-10 weeks throughout the duration of the competition.

The first project of its kind requiring security products for 25 remote locations around the UK. This also meant that engineers needed to be on-site to attend to call-outs with very short response windows during the 8-10 weeks.

Following substantial growth, Lloyd’s Development Capital invests in ATG Access and allows further investment in product development and export scaling to meeting global security demands.

ATG Access was able to celebrate ten years of successful exporting. In this time, ATG Access had supplied security products to over 42 countries and had built up a network of 30 international distributors.

Gavin Hepburn was promoted to Managing Director following a successful 14 years at the company. Gavin started out at ATG Access for just two weeks in 2003 working on a final year, MBA project at Manchester University Business School.

In response to a terrifying change in attack methodology; ATG Access successfully test and launch the pioneering Surface Guard system. This temporary security barrier system was designed to protect against the emerging vehicle as a weapon attack seen across Europe.

Hill & Smith Holdings PLC Acquire ATG Access Limited. ATG Access joined Hill & Smith’s other security companies: Barker’s Fencing, Technocover, Parking Facilities, Hard Staff Barriers and their own brand – Bristorm to form a new brand - HS Security.

Whilst still very much remaining ATG Access, HS Security aims to unite all company offerings to ensure clients can come to the brand to achieve all physical security requirements to solve site-wide challenges.