How many locksmiths in the UK.

[Marcus27]

Been looking around the net and chatting to other locksmiths.
There seems to be a large number of training schools knocking out lockies. Is there now too many locksmiths? Whats your opinion?

Is there any official figures or numbers to back this up. I remember to all the hype about plumbers about 4 years ago, is this the same?

Whats going to happen in 5 years time?

[Mark A]

Marcus27

I dont know of any offical list as to number of locksmiths in the UK.
As to the large numbers being trained, How many of these actually start up in business?
Of the ones that do start up, how many are still going after 12 months?
I would suggest that the answer to both of these is a low percentage.
There are a number of threads regarding content and quality of courses and a search would give you plenty of threads to read.
There is some hype but there are also some training centres being honest and making clear that the industry is saturated and before money is spent this needs to be considered.
I think that there will always be room for a well run company with the right training and the necessary business skills to make it a success, this takes years to achieve and sadly many think after a few days training and a few ads placed that they are prepared, and unfortunately find out the hard way that they are not.

Mark

[pinky]

A good indicator for you is to look at yellow pages , yell.com etc, look at last years ads, then at this years ads, see how many have gone, see how many new ads appear.

As mark has said, very few training even get as far as starting up, those that do start up, sadly very few survive as they have to contend with time served competition in an overpopulated market, that takes many years to learn rather than a few days.
Sadly other than the MLA 4 year program and business start up courses, no short course prepares you to be a fully fledged locksmith and businessman, despite the wild claims made.

To become a good locksmith takes years, not weeks, even with good training.

as to numbers of people training, well SKS have 78 training firms on their books, now some train just 1 person a week , some train just 4 where others train 8 to 10 a week, so if you had just a conservative estimate and say an average of just 3 a week were being trained per training firm, thats 234 people a week, and even just multiplied by 50 weeks a year, then thats 11,700 people a year being trained, you then allow for lets say 50% to never start up, that still leaves 5850 people a year starting up in an already overpopulated market, no industry can withstand this, not and earn this easy £1k a week touted.
If of this figure another 50% went bust , then it would be a much smaller market share for all.

Thankfully for those locksmiths already established and skilled, the figures are not that frightening, a more realistic figure is, of the 11,700 training, only 10% make it to even start up, then only 10% of the 1170 left will still be in business 12 months later, but of the 117 that survive it means a smaller market share all round.

This smaller market share doesnt just kill off the new guy, established locksmiths are closing down too, and slowly the skills are being diluted out of the industry, until one day all that is left is the nationals and 2 day course guys trading, thats the future of the uk industry, like it or not.

I spoke a while back to a guy off of a dubious course, who new only a drill, he boasted of how he charges £60 for every euro he drills open and another £60 labour.
when i said that its the number of undertrained guys killing the industry and making skilled locksmiths close up shop, his answer was , " tough mate, market forces ".
On chatting further, he was though only getting 2 jobs a week, and was working a full time job too , to make ends meet, he intended giving it up when he has recouped the money he spent.

His justification for ripping off the customer, well i was ripped off on training, so someone has to pay, i have a family, and lets face it nothing says i cant charge what i like.

The figures are not hard to work out, as to what in 5 years , i think if things carry on this way, then the traditional locksmith will be gone, you will have some nationals, some chippies who also do locks, and locksmiths who do alarms, handy man jobs etc etc, the tradesman will be all but gone in years to come.

Many sources of info exist, and despite all hope, the figures really are that bad, i wouldnt be a new start up now for all the tea in china.