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He reflected, “The superior quality of our loops and the ability to ship out orders the same day helped us gain solid footing in the gate and door industries.”
The story of BD Loops begins with Ted Dickson, after 23 years with Sony as a broadcast engineer Mr. Dickson became an access control department manager at a wrought iron company. He noticed very quickly that 50% of repeat service calls on brand new gate systems were because of faulty loops. He took apart the loops they were offering their customers and noticed flaws and issues that caused failures and false detections, so he set out to build a better loop that would be easy to install and offer exceptional reliability and quality. Selling his loop would have been a conflict of interest so his son Brian set up BD Loops (BD stands for Brian Dickson) while he was still in high school and began manufacturing and shipping the loops with his cousin in Ted’s garage. They very quickly outgrew the garage and had to purchase an offsite location for storage. The offsite location wasn’t large enough to keep up with the growth so they purchased a 2,000 sq. ft. building in Huntington Beach, CA and moved all of their operations to it.
“We’ve managed to stay in this building for the past 5 years but are bursting at the seams once more and will be making another move to a larger location soon.” Brian Dickson told me as we toured the BD Loops warehouse, a 17’ tall building where boxes and wire line the walls from floor to ceiling and space is certainly at a premium.
The growth and success of BD Loops has been a blessing, sales have increased an average of over 30% every year since they started in 2001. In the past 10 years BD Loops has grown to be the largest manufacturer of preformed loops with over 220 distributors throughout the US and Canada for the gate, door, and parking industry. BD Loops now offers over 45 standard sizes of direct burial and saw-cut loops, both standard and custom size loops ship same day. They attribute their success to the quality of their loops, the introduction of new products, and their incredible performance track record.
“Our Direct Burial loop had really taken off, and we were getting calls from installers and distributors asking if we had loops for saw-cut applications. We knew we needed to come out with a new product that would meet our customers’ needs so we began doing our research.”
When BD Loops decided to introduce a saw-cut loop they looked at what was available in the industry. “We knew there were other preformed saw-cut loops available and we didn’t want our version to be a me-too.” Ted Dickson explained, “We wanted to build a better preformed saw-cut loop so we looked at issues installers faced when they used other preformed loops that were out on the market, we knew our product had to be built to a higher standard and be easier to install if we wanted it to take off.”
BD Loops decided on the key features their saw-cut loop would have that would set it apart:
• The loop would save installers time and materials in installation.
• Both the loop and the lead-in would fit into the same sized saw-cut groove.
• The saw-cut wires would be fully insulated and have a tough polyethylene protective outer jacket.
• All the connections would be soldered.
• The yoke would be thin, water tight, and easily adjustable.
• The outer jacket would have built in backer-rod.
• The loop, when installed would not be prone to air-pockets.
• They would offer a true installation kit (TB-Kit) that could be used with any size saw-cut loop to guarantee an exact size cut every time for a perfect fit – no adjustment cuts.
BD Loops unveiled their 3/16” saw-cut loops in April of 2006. “The feedback on our saw-cut loops was overwhelmingly positive. We were receiving calls from installers complimenting us on our saw-cut design, we were thrilled by their reception. We designed a saw-cut loop that was saving installers time & money, and they were putting in a product that was better than wrapping their own loop.”
“Designing the TB-Kit was a long process.” Ted Dickson reminisced, “We had a lot of different ideas on how an installation kit could work, and built quite a few prototypes. We wanted the installation kit to work with any size loop and be very light and portable. It took us a while before we hit on template blocks, 4 tiny blocks that were built to hold any size saw-cut loop.” The TB-Kit consists of 4 template blocks with T-pins, a one man chalk line, 2 masonry bits, 2 wax markers, a can of upside-down clear spray, a BD Loops Pizza Wheel and Wedge Tool, and a custom tool bag to carry it all in. The kit has been very successful and many installers have taken advantage of the rebate BD Loops offers to acquire one: Order any 10 saw-cut loops on the same invoice and receive a free TB-Kit.
“We want to get our TB-KIT into the hands of installers who use our saw-cut loops.” Brian Dickson explained, “It makes the installations even quicker and simpler for them, which is why we offer the rebate programs.”
BD Loops also offers a truly unique testing device for installers in the access control industry. Ted Dickson learned how to troubleshoot devices using the art of substitution when he worked as a repair man, so it seemed natural to create a device that tests components in a loop system using the same principle. The E-Z Detector Checker is a unique handheld device of its kind that tests multiple aspects of a loop system. It checks if the loops are being energized (if the harness wiring is working correctly or if a defect or crack on the board is preventing the loop from being energized), it also checks if the detector is working properly with a push of a button it simulates a car trip. By testing these components you can quickly determine if it is the loop, detector, or harness wiring/board that is causing the issue.
“We are very proud of the E-Z Detector Checker” Ted Dickson “It makes diagnosing faulty loop systems much easier, you can check the detector and harness wiring in a matter of seconds which saves the tech valuable field time.”
I spoke with Brian about the future of BD Loops, “BD Loops future plan is to continue to expand and improve its products and services. We are always looking for ways to save the installer time and make their job easier. We will continue to improve the tools and resources we offer to the industry.” He told me that they have been making some dramatic improvements to their website. “Check our website often for improvements to the Loopalator, new educational editorials, articles, tests and results, educational videos, and more. We are constantly writing new articles and performing new tests.”
BD Loops has been putting a lot of emphasis on education in recent years. They have created a 2 hour seminar titled Everything you Need to Know About Loops. They have taken it around the country to multiple distributors and associations. “Our training seminars have been very successful,” Brian shared, “We enjoy doing the seminars, we get to go out there and share our knowledge of loops with installers. We have made our course very relevant so that installers can get the maximum return out of it. We want to share knowledge that will make their jobs easier.” In some cases distributors have reported a 150% increase in loop sales after the seminars.
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