OUR HISTORY
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Aaron M. Fish was the recipient of the “Lifetime of Outstanding Achievement” award from the Associated Locksmiths of America and the “Entrepreneur of the Year” award from the Quebec government, the Bank of Montreal and various investment firms. He was the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Unican Security Systems Ltd.
After leaving high school in 1949 armed with early training in his fathers locksmith shop, the 17-year-old entrepreneur started Canadian Key and Lock Supply, (His locksmith distributor uncle provided mentoring and a $100 line of credit.) As his expertise, reputation, and contacts grew, Bell Canada approached him with a request to develop a keyless lock for their facilities. In 1964, the Unican mechanical pushbutton lock was launched.
Unican Security Systems Ltd. became a world leader in key blanks, key duplicating machines, safe and vault locks, mechanical pushbutton locks, and electronic access controls. With its corporate headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, and factories in Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, And Switzerland, Unican supplied locksmiths, hotels, businesses, governments, OEM customers, and hardware stores in more than 150 countries worldwide.
The Major growth of what was known as the Unican Group occurred over the last two decades. With subsidiaries and affiliates in 14 countries, Unican grew from a base of three employees with an annual income of $180,000, to more than 3,700 employees with sales in excess of $450 million worldwide in 1999.
The Unican Group, Mr. Fish’s life work, was sold to a Swiss Company in April of 2001 and now is part of Kaba AG.
In November 2015, the Associated Locksmiths of America (ALOA) opened a security training center in Dallas, TX with eight classrooms specializing in various parts of the security industry. The center is named The Aaron M. Fish Security Training Center.