Drive success in access hardware

Can you introduce us to Southco?

Southco is the leading global designer and manufacturer of access hardware, providing one of the broadest portfolios of locks, latches, fasteners, hinges and display mounts. We work with the world's most recognised brands and pride ourselves in providing innovative access solutions which enhance our customers' products in transportation industries, such as automotive, trucks and railways, as well as industrial applications, medical equipment, data centres and many more industries. Our global business which comprises over 3,500 people stretches across the Americas, Europe, India and Asia Pacific with 18 locations around the world, with 13 design centres, 13 manufacturing locations and 15 shipping locations.

Headquartered in Concordville, PA, USA, we have been operating in the UK for well over 30 years with a manufacturing site in Worcester where we produce over 40 million parts per year. In 2019, our European footprint was enlarged by opening a 60,000 square feet manufacturing plant in Rzeszow, Poland.

Who are your main customers and how do you deal with them?

Due to the nature of our product offering, we are able to engage with companies from a wide range of industries. We are an established and recognised supplier across the multitude of transportation businesses, i.e. the automotive, truck, off-highway, rail, aerospace and marine industries, as well as industrial applications' markets, such as HVAC, industrial machinery, healthcare and telecommunications. We count leading global OEMs among our customers in each of these industries.

Southco's approach to working with our customers is to closely collaborate with their design teams to listen and understand their application requirements and offer a solution that meets their needs, selecting either from our standard product offering of over 100,000 products or developing a custom solution. Our added value is to develop and offer solutions, so our customers do not have to search for one.

What changes have you seen in your markets over the last few years?

Global macro trends such as digitalisation, electrification and sustainability have led to substantial design changes in applications. These changes trickle down to the component level, i.e. the choice of access hardware used by our customers.

In some cases, these changes can be quite fundamental, and we see application zones for our products being completely re-engineered: take, for example, glovebox latching mechanisms in car instrument panels: Southco has been developing and supplying such mechanisms for most automotive OEMs for the past twenty years. As car instrument panels are increasingly evolving into digital cockpits, OEMs are requiring solutions that suit this smart, connected operational environment.

Southco offers an electric actuator for vehicle interior stowage that easily integrates and combines the best in automotive design: a space-efficient opening mechanism, premium sound control and no complex electronics.

At the same time, new application opportunities have appeared in car design which we are also able to capitalise on. These include, for example, the frunk area of electric cars, i.e. the area under the bonnet where the engine would typically be in ICE cars. The frunk essentially is now a storage space and requires latches and hinges for access to compartments and underfloor containers. Southco offers a wide range of torque hinges that allow easy positioning into one or many positions and that are suitable even in minimal packaging spaces. The EV charging port has also evolved into a new application opportunity for access hardware as OEMs demand highly engineered locking mechanisms to securely fit and lock-in EV charging hoses.

Moving on from automotive and looking at some very different industries, another example of our customers' products evolving and new opportunities for access hardware arising, is the server industry where innovative concepts of liquid cooling such as immersion cooling are imposing very specific requirements on latches and fasteners to be used. Southco has developed a blind mate quick disconnect adapter for liquid cooled servers and chassis that provides 3D float to ensure proper alignment with the rack manifold, preventing friction and leakage. Our solution provides reliability of connection and thereby eliminates a major industry pain point.

How has the company's product portfolio changed over time in response to market needs?

The biggest change Southco has seen in its product offering, in response to the increased market needs of enhanced application security and safety, has been its branching out from offering a purely mechanical latch product portfolio and combining our proven engineered mechanical locks and latches with electronic actuation. This journey which began about twenty years ago has resulted in Southco offering today a highly versatile platform of electromechanical latches, hardware interfaces as well as electronic and remote access controllers, utilising RFID cards, PIN codes and Bluetooth technology.

Most recently, we launched a free App, called Keypanion, which enables you to use your phone or smart device to wirelessly access your equipment anytime from anywhere a simple one plug and play solution. Applications for the Keypanion app are highly versatile as the need to provide and monitor equipment access, wirelessly and remotely, are as relevant to users of urban bike shelters as it is to nurses accessing cabinets with controlled drugs or shop owners who require a simple, but secure electronic access solution to protect their most valuable goods.

And we have many more exciting electronic products in the pipeline to launch this year. As a matter of fact, Southco is currently going through a rebranding process to launch its range of Electronic Access Solutions under the new product header of Connected Access.

What have been some of the key challenges for the company over the past few years and how have you managed through these?

As a manufacturer, we have been exposed to the same challenges that other businesses have been faced with over the past few years, operating in a highly volatile environment - post-pandemic cost increases related to freight, tariffs and then the impact of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Having said that, during any time of market instability Southco's key advantage has always been its broad product offering which provides solutions to a multitude of industries and applications and has enabled our balanced business through the years to withstand financial and operational pressures.

We also firmly believe that investment is a vital part of our growth, and amid all the uncertainty, we have continued to extend our global footprint: in early 2021, we opened our expanded manufacturing plant in Pune/India, which was followed by the acquisition of the Darshana brand in May 2022, establishing us as, by far, the largest manufacturer of access hardware in that part of the world. In September 2025, we celebrated the opening of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Foshan/China, spanning an impressive 13,000 square meters and showcasing our commitment to innovation, operational excellence, and strengthening our presence in the Asian market.

What is your message to the market?

Southco has emerged stronger and very successful after several economically challenging years. Our unwavering commitment to our customers remains at the heart of everything we do, driving us to stay agile and adaptable in a rapidly changing world. We continue to invest heavily, expanding our global footprint, accelerating product innovation, and capitalising on emerging market trends by demonstrating industry leadership, and identifying new opportunities for access hardware. We are prepared for what's next and the future is bright.