29 Sep 2005

A range of surveillance equipment has been supplied by leading specialist supplier CBC (Europe) to improve security for one of the largest Ford car dealerships in north-east England. In total, five sites, owned by the Patterson Motor Group, have benefited from this additional protection.

The CCTV measures have been introduced to combat a number of different problems the company had experienced at the sites. These included break-ins, as well as thefts of vehicles at storage compounds and otherwise vulnerable items such as valuable alloy wheels and stereo systems.

Patterson Ford, which was first established in 1911 and began its partnership with Ford in 1926, employs some 325 staff in Newcastle and North Tyneside. It sells around 12,500 new and used cars and commercial vehicles annually, with a turnover of approximately £200 million. As part of its commitment to improved long-term customer service, the company is currently engaged in a programme of upgrading its various premises in the area.

This project has included an ambitious £1.4 million redevelopment of the company’s Shiremoor Road dealership site in North Tyneside, completed in summer 2005. Elsewhere, Patterson Ford’s site in Hexham – comprising a showroom and workshop – was refitted earlier in 2005. The main showroom, at Scotswood Road, is scheduled for similar attention in 2006, while an adjacent site at Gardiner Street has already benefited from improved security installed by consultancy RJ Security.

CBC (Europe)’s Sales Manager, John Downie, explains that the company worked closely with RJ Security: “We liaised closely on this project to identify the client’s most vulnerable locations and develop a system to meet the needs of Ford Patterson both now and into the future”.

Mr Downie confirms that the surveillance equipment provided to protect the various locations involved includes CBC (Europe)’s Ganz ZC-D3000 colour and day/night dome cameras, deployed for both internal and external surveillance. Also supplied were a number of Ganz high-resolution static colour cameras, fitted with Computar aspherical varifocal lenses. Images from all of these units are now stored on CBC (Europe) digital video recorders (DVRs) that are monitored both locally and at Patterson Ford’s security control centre via a secure broadband local area network backed up by ISDN.

RJ Security’s Proprietor, Rob Johnston, adds that the control centre at Patterson Ford’s Davey Bank site in Wallsend, which is manned around the clock by the company’s contracted security team, also remotely monitors the surveillance cameras in real-time and reacts to any detector-activated incidents.  Loudspeakers will shortly to be installed at the Patterson Ford sites, allowing the operators to warn off suspected intruders.

Meanwhile, the cameras will also soon be linked to integrated tamper circuits in the electronic fencing system installed at two of the sites, providing additional deterrence and detection capability.  Mr Johnston notes that break-ins have already been reduced by 95% and that he expects these savings will allow Patterson Motor Group to recoup its investment in the surveillance system and other measures within a year.