SentrySafe is the flagship

Flagship

A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 brand

Brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

 of the John D. Brush & Co. (d/b/a Sentry Group), a family-owned safe

Safe

A safe is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or damage. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face removable or hinged to form a door. The body and door may be cast from metal or formed out of plastic through blow molding...

 manufacturing company headquartered in Rochester, NY, USA. Sentry Group manufactures and sells home, business, and gun safes. In addition to security, SentrySafe provides a wide variety of Underwriters Laboratories

Underwriters Laboratories

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. is an independent product safety certification organization. Established in 1894, the company has its headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois. UL develops standards and test procedures for products, materials, components, assemblies, tools and equipment, chiefly dealing...

 (UL) rated safes to protect valuables from both fire and water.

SentrySafe products have five general, but also interrelated, functions:

• Security
• Fire-Resistance
• Waterproof
• Digital Media Storage & Protection
• Firearm Storage & Protection

History

In 1930, John Brush, Sr. and his brother-in-law, Willard Punnett, opened a small shop for the manufacture of safes at 545 West Avenue in Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

. The Brush-Punnett Company was an early pioneer in the stamping (metalworking)

Stamping (metalworking)

Stamping includes a variety of sheet-metal forming manufacturing processes, such as punching using a machine press or stamping press, blanking, embossing, bending, flanging, and coining. This could be a single stage operation where every stroke of the press produce the desired form on the sheet...

 of steel safes. After a long and arduous startup period that spanned the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 and World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, The Brush-Punnett Company made some early successes by selling safes to Vassar College

Vassar College

Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...

 for its dormitories and steel skids to Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

.

In 1943, after purchasing his sister and brother’s-in-law interest, John Brush Sr. became the sole owner of the company . It was Mr. Brush's intent to pass the business onto his sons; John Jr., Richard, and Robert. John Brush Jr. joined the business in 1954 after serving active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and graduating from St. Lawrence University

St. Lawrence University

St. Lawrence University is a four-year liberal arts college located in the village of Canton in Saint Lawrence County, New York, United States. It has roughly 2300 undergraduate and 100 graduate students, about equally split between male and female....

 (1950) and Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...

. The company changed its name to the John D. Brush & Co. in 1955.

Brush & Co. moved into a new plant at 900 Linden Avenue (Rochester, NY) in 1968, with over 50000 sq ft (4,645.2 m²). Then, in 1987, it began doing business under the name Sentry Group, in order to better identify the company with its trademark name safes - "Sentry".

Sentry Group produces more fire-resistant chests, file cabinets, safes, security storage containers, and gun safes than any other company in the world and has won numerous awards for its product design and retail service. It was awarded "Vendor of the Year" from Lowe's

Lowe's

Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves more than 14 million customers a week in its 1,710 stores in the United States and 20 in Canada. Expansion into Canada began in...

 in 1999, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

 in 2001, and OfficeMax

OfficeMax

OfficeMax , is an American office supplies retailer that was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.-History:On April 1, 1988, OfficeMax was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Bob Hurwitz and Michael Feuer. Hurwitz served as executive chairman and chief executive officer and Feuer...

 in 2002.

On November 13, 2007 at a press preview in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show

Consumer Electronics Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...

, Sentry Group announced its partnership with Maxtor

Maxtor

Maxtor Corporation, founded in 1982 and acquired by Seagate Technology in 2006, was an American manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, the third largest in the world immediately prior to acquisition...

 Storage Solutions in developing the world's first hard drives that are protected from fire and water, as well as computer crashes and theft. Among the new products is the SentrySafe Fire-Safe/Waterproof Hard Drive enclosure containing the Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini hard drive in either an 80 or 160 gigabyte

Gigabyte

The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

 storage capacity.

Sentry maintains manufacturing facilities in Rochester, New York and Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, and has sales offices located in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Today, members of the third generation, Doug and Jim Brush serve as Chairman and CEO.

Business philosophy

Sentry Group shares its success with its workforce and maintains its family-oriented business philosophy with some unique business practices. Sentry is a profit sharing company, providing year-end bonuses based on profitability. Retirement

Retirement

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...

 funds in the form of a 401K (including a service-based contribution regardless of the employees' contribution), paid vacations and holidays (including every employees' own birthday, complete with a personalized card handed out by the owner and including a monetary gift and an extra day off of work), annual parties (including a catered "employee appreciation day"), an on-site company fitness center with an indoor pool, Christmas bonuses, and a complimentary Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...

 turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Sentry Group continues to adhere to its founders' guiding principle that, “A useful product, honestly made and honestly sold … that is good business.”

Legal cases

In 1991, Michael Redman of Virginia brought a products liability suit against Sentry Group after his coin collection was stolen out of his Sentry Supreme Safe, Model #5570. Redman originally noticed the safe in a Value-Tique advertisement that appeared in the magazine Coin World

Coin World

Coin World is an American weekly numismatic magazine. It is the world’s #1 publication for coin collectors and the weekly newspaper of the entire numismatic field...

. The magazine had advertised the safe as “burglar deterrent.” .

Redman won the jury

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

 verdict

Verdict

In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...

 in district court

United States district court

The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...

, but the case was appealed. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...

 reversed the decision, holding that Redman failed to present evidence demonstrating that the safe violated industry standards, government standards, or reasonable consumer expectations. Also, Redman’s safe was specifically designed to meet fire-resistant standards, but not “burglar deterrent” standards, even though it did provide “a degree of protection against burglary.” An expert witness

Expert witness

An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...

 testified that materials that enhance burglar-resistance on safes consequently reduce the fire-resistance.