User:Brook Chalmers

Asgard Secure Steel Storage are manufacturer of metal garden sheds, bike storage, and motorcycle garages. They sell their products online via their own website, as well as via third party resellers. All their products are produced in a manufacturing plant in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

History

Asgard is a division of Flexiform Business Furniture. As experts in sheet steel manufacture, Flexiform looked for another product to make full use of their production facility.

Flexiform have a long history in the manufacturing of steel products, so the design team played to their strengths and came up with the idea of making something that could be used as storage outside of static caravans. At the time, much of the outdoor storage being used on caravan parks was made from plastic and was prone to weather damage, as well as getting blown away in strong winds. The idea was to make something that could withstand the weather, be heavy enough to stay put in strong winds, and be secure enough to withstand attempted break-ins. However, the general thoughts amongst Asgard’s design team were the shed might be too low.

A taller metal cabinet was made. This went on show to various focus groups. The new ideas that came from the focus groups were the Classic and Compact in 2003. The Compact and Classic were more like tool cabinets. The Classic had an additional panel, which meant things like a bike could fit in. Both these sheds were LPCB tested, but not before modifications were made. Following the successful testing, the annexe was then developed to sit under caravan windows.

Asgard’s design engineers, drew up plans for a steel-made shed that was designed fit under the window of a static caravan. This was essentially the popular Annexe and Additions units that is still being made today.

In 2007, Asgard made a new product called the Trojan for a building company called Lovells. Many of these sheds were erected around the area of Moss Side, Manchester.

In 2009, the now Marketing Manager, Andy Heath got involved with the Asgard project, bringing the sheds to a wider audience by creating online ecommerce website, using the Cubecart content management system.  Andy set about photographing each shed manufactured by Asgard. Each image was tailored to a new niche market, all of which went onto the new website. He also produced new literature for the product, helping to truly launch Asgard’s products to the mass market.

New categories of shed were added to the website as products were developed for a variety of purposes. Some of these categories included small, medium and large metal garden sheds; tack storage units for horses; parcel delivery boxes and of course the original model, designed for caravan parks.

In 2010, being a keen cyclist and having a creative entrepreneurial flair for product development, Heath suggested that the dimensions for the caravan storage units could also accommodate bikes. Knowing that bikes are expensive items that need to be kept safe, under lock and key, and often can’t be kept inside a person’s home Andy began to develop new ideas. Andy took several units home and tested them by storing his own fleet of bikes in them, and so helping to develop a range of cycle sheds and lockers to hold varying numbers of bikes. The first Asgard bike shed was the Insurance Approved Annexe bike shed.

In 2011 the Asgard website was further developed, becoming a full Magento ecommerce website, with a wider range of products sitting under categories such as bikes, garden, motorcycle, caravan, and school storage.

Services

Asgard offer an installation service for their sheds, although all sheds come with full instructions and can be assembled by two people in roughly one hour.

Accreditations

·        UK Locksmiths Association

·        Secure by Design – Police Approved

·        Locksmith Approved

·        ISO 14002

·        ISO 9001

Association with British Athletes

In 2014 Asgard supplied a shed to Olympic gold medal cyclist Elinor Barker to keep her bikes in, outside of her Manchester home. Elinor, being very pleased with the security that her Asgard cycle shed had provided, approached Asgard again for another smaller shed when she moved to a new house.

Other notable Team GB cyclists that have Asgard sheds are Laura Kenny, Jason Kenny, Helen Scott, Victoria Barnes.

Charity work

Asgard have worked with many charities; giving back to the community. In 2016 a large cycle shed signed by the Team GB cycle team was donated to the inclusive cycling charity, Wheels for Wellbeing who are based in Brixton, London.

Also in 2016 Asgard began to donated materials to Dixons Trinity Academy in Bradford, for use in design technology classes, as well as sponsoring a design competition.

In 2017, Asgard ran a charity raffle and donated shed to Kirkwood Hospice based in Huddersfield. The shed had a plaque attached to it, which had been signed by the GB Cycling Team.