Tru-Bilt Industries general manager Mark Taylor said the Dunedin company had noted a spike in inquiries and orders since a recent spate of high-profile ram-raids.
Most bollards were going to Auckland, the scene of most of the incidents, Mr Taylor said.
The company had been manufacturing bollards in Dunedin at its Kaikorai Valley premises since 1993.
It was the only company in the country manufacturing bollards to the Australian and New Zealand quality standard and it stood by its claim that it was the country’s leading manufacturer of safety products, Mr Taylor said.
Its factory was always making bollards, as well as safety barriers and hand rails.
Its mission was making workplaces safer, Mr Taylor said.
The company made bollards in three sizes — small, large and extra large.
Even the small ones, which have a 115mm diameter, had ample vehicle-stopping ability when placed at 1m intervals in front of a shop, Mr Taylor said.
The bollards were also effective as a visible deterrent to would-be ram-raiders and were extremely cost-effective, he said.
While it might take 10 to protect a shopfront, the cost from lost stock, damaged property and stress caused by ram-raids far outweighed the cost of installing bollards.
While most of the bollards supplied by the company were sent north, Mr Taylor’s message for southern shop owners was to not be complacent.
"You see a lot of shops with glass frontages right on the street-front, [it’s] just saying ‘please hit me’," he said.
Southern business owners had been largely unaffected by ram-raids so far, but the situation could change overnight if people realised how easy the crime was.
Retailers should be proactive, as reactive approaches often resulted in shopowners acting too late, Mr Taylor said.
