Pickersgill-Kaye, which designs and produces locks and safety products for the rail, security and custodial industries, will provide 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 the company 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.

Chinese authorities specified cell locks similar to those used in UK police custody suites, which made Pickersgill-Kaye’s product an obvious choice as it has supplied the Kaye Class 1 to police forces across the country, including the Met, Cleveland, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and Two Counties, as well as overseas to the Garda in Ireland and Malaysia.

Pickersgill-Kaye’s business development manager for security and engineering products John Moore said: "The Chinese are looking to locate custodial facilities at certain points along the route of the Express Rail Link and wanted a UK police style cell lock. When the product is rolled out there will be a lot of their custody suites fitted with Pickersgill-Kaye’s cell door locks.

"The doors are a similar construction and design to those in UK custodial suites. They will be fabricated and installed in China and it will be Pickersgill-Kaye locks that are fitted to those doors. It’s the first time Pickersgill-Kaye has sold cell locks into China and this contract should help open doors to potential new markets."

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

All Pickersgill-Kaye products are designed on state-of-the-art CAD software and are subjected to extensive and challenging testing on key operation, lock construction and overall durability and resistance to attack, in order to satisfy the operational requirements of national and international market sectors.

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 to Ireland, multi-point lock to a Libyan company and Kaye-Rota padlock for France.

In 2013, 34% (£783,000) of Pickersgill-Kaye’s sales were export business – the biggest proportion of total sales the company has ever achieved – and the company is confident of breaking into even more markets with products it believes will appeal to those involved in the high-security sector.

For more information, please contact Pickersgill-Kaye.