Pickersgill-Kaye, which designs and produces locks and safety products for the rail, security and custodial industries, provided its renowned 8-lever Kaye Class 1 Custodial Cell Lock to door manufacturer Jardine Engineering, which is part of an international consortium working on the prestigious project.

This is the first time that the Leeds-based business has exported its custodial products into China and Pickersgill-Kaye is confident that it will lead to further orders from the region, with more satellite police stations already planned for locations along the Express Rail Link.

This latest export boost helped Pickersgill-Kaye to post sales of around £3m for the year ending November 2014, up 25% on the last 12 months mainly thanks to a reviving UK market, while £638,300 was export business – with the company revealing that there are more major overseas projects in the pipeline.

During the year, Pickersgill-Kaye clinched its largest single order to manufacture emergency door releases for the Class 800 and 801 trains being supplied by Hitachi Rail Europe for the multi-billion pound Intercity Express Programme (IEP), one of the biggest rail projects in the world. Part of the Joseph Kaye Holdings Group, Pickersgill-Kaye is supplying the Emergency Egress Device (EED) and Emergency Access Device (EAD) for the passenger carriage doors of the trains, in the multi-million pound contract through to 2020.

The specialist engineering firm has developed a growing reputation for well-designed and quality engineered rail and high-security products. It is this manufacturing commitment, backed up by excellent levels of service, which has helped it fill its overseas order book against often tough competition.

In addition to China, Pickersgill-Kaye’s reputation for high-quality rail products continues to grow around the world with orders from more than 12 different countries. In North America, the company supplied Axion Technologies with further passenger alarm units for fitting to new-build Toronto Transit ‘Rocket’ subway cars and locomotive cab door locks to several train companies in the US and Canada.

Meanwhile in Europe, the business manufactured emergency hammer boxes for a new build tram project in Belgium and trains in Germany, cab door locks for Spain, ongoing emergency break access panels for Austria, budget locks and break panels for Siemens’ Desiro trains and an ongoing supply of loco door locks for the Bombardier Traxx locos.

International demand for Pickersgill-Kaye’s range of high security and custodial locks for prisons and police stations continues to increase with ongoing sales of its cell door locks, strikers and hatches for prestigious projects in Ireland and the Kaye-Rota padlock for France.

Pickersgill-Kaye’s sales director Harry Griffiths said: "We are delighted to report an increase in total sales of 25% on last year, despite the weak Eurozone economy.

"However, global sales make an important contribution to our business and we are confident of making further growth in this area during the forthcoming year on the rail and custodial product export side."

For more information, please contact Pickersgill-Kaye.