| Type | Privately held |
|---|---|
| Industry | Manufacture |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Headquarters | Rochester, NY, USA |
| Key people | James Brush, President & CEO |
| Website | www.sentrysafe.com |
SentrySafe is the flagship brand of the John D. Brush & Co. (d/b/a Sentry Group), a family-owned safe manufacturing company headquartered in Rochester, NY, USA. Sentry Group manufactures and sells home, business, and gun safes. In addition to security, SentrySafe provides a wide variety of Underwriters Laboratories (UL) rated safes to protect valuables from both fire and water.
SentrySafe products have five general, but also interrelated, functions:
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In 1930, John Brush, Sr. and his brother-in-law, Willard Punnett, opened a small shop for the manufacture of safes at 545 West Avenue in Rochester, New York. The Brush-Punnett Company was an early pioneer in the stamping (metalworking) of steel safes. After a long and arduous startup period that spanned the Great Depression and World War II, The Brush-Punnett Company made some early successes by selling safes to Vassar College for its dormitories and steel skids to Eastman Kodak.
In 1943, after purchasing his sister and brother’s-in-law interest, John Brush Sr. became the sole owner of the company . It was Mr. Brush's intent to pass the business onto his sons; John Jr., Richard, and Robert. John Brush Jr. joined the business in 1954 after serving active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and graduating from St. Lawrence University (1950) and Harvard Business School. The company changed its name to the John D. Brush & Co. in 1955.
Brush & Co. moved into a new plant at 900 Linden Avenue (Rochester, NY) in 1968, with over 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m2). Then, in 1987, it began doing business under the name Sentry Group, in order to better identify the company with its trademark name safes - "Sentry".
Sentry Group produces more fire-resistant chests, file cabinets, safes, security storage containers, and gun safes than any other company in the world and has won numerous awards for its product design and retail service. It was awarded "Vendor of the Year" from Lowe's in 1999, Wal-Mart in 2001, and OfficeMax in 2002.
On November 13, 2007 at a press preview in New York City for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, Sentry Group announced its partnership with Maxtor Storage Solutions in developing the world's first hard drives that are protected from fire and water, as well as computer crashes and theft. Among the new products is the SentrySafe Fire-Safe/Waterproof Hard Drive enclosure containing the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini hard drive in either an 80 or 160 gigabyte storage capacity.
Sentry maintains manufacturing facilities in Rochester, New York and Shanghai, China, and has sales offices located in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan. Today, members of the third generation, Doug and Jim Brush serve as Chairman and CEO.
Sentry Group shares its success with its workforce and maintains its family-oriented business philosophy with some unique business practices. Sentry is a profit sharing company, providing year-end bonuses based on profitability. Retirement funds in the form of a 401K (including a service-based contribution regardless of the employees' contribution), paid vacations and holidays (including every employees' own birthday, complete with a personalized card handed out by the owner and including a monetary gift and an extra day off of work), annual parties (including a catered "employee appreciation day"), an on-site company fitness center with an indoor pool, Christmas bonuses, and a complimentary Thanksgiving turkey.
Sentry Group continues to adhere to its founders' guiding principle that, “A useful product, honestly made and honestly sold … that is good business.”
In 1991, Michael Redman of Virginia brought a products liability suit against Sentry Group after his coin collection was stolen out of his Sentry Supreme Safe, Model #5570. Redman originally noticed the safe in a Value-Tique advertisement that appeared in the magazine Coin World. The magazine had advertised the safe as “burglar deterrent.” Redman v. John D. Brush and Co., 111 F.3d 1174 (4th Cir. April 28, 1997). .
Redman won the jury verdict in district court, but the case was appealed. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the decision, holding that Redman failed to present evidence demonstrating that the safe violated industry standards, government standards, or reasonable consumer expectations. Also, Redman’s safe was specifically designed to meet fire-resistant standards, but not “burglar deterrent” standards, even though it did provide “a degree of protection against burglary.” An expert witness testified that materials that enhance burglar-resistance on safes consequently reduce the fire-resistance.