ABOUT US
Doyle Celebrates 100 Years Of Business
It began in 1921 with a toolbox and a dream. From their first location on 11th Street, Howard Doyle would ride the Minneapolis streetcars with his toolbox of supplies to service calls while his wife, Rose, manned the shop and handled the books. As the retail business grew, Doyle Lock moved three times over the next six years. In 1927, Howard’s brother, Harry, joined Doyle Lock and the newly named Doyle Bros. moved to 316 Hennepin Avenue and opened a new wholesale division across the street at 315 Hennepin Avenue, selling supplies to their fellow locksmiths in Minnesota.
When Harry left in 1937, Howard added a partner, Bill Sund, and from 1937-1939, the name was changed to Doyle & Sund. In 1939, Howard resumed sole ownership and in 1954, Doyle Lock Supply moved across the alley to 302 Nicollet, then to 304 Nicollet shortly after.
In 1958, the city bought the property to build the Minneapolis Central Library and Doyle Lock moved to 200 N Washington. Concerned to lose the foot traffic of Hennepin Avenue, Howard realized the new location had something its previous location did not…parking for America’s automobile boom.
As the city grew so did Doyle Lock, including adding a new partner, Howard’s son, Jim, who took over the business in 1960. Jim was not interested in the lock industry, choosing instead to serve as a Minneapolis police officer. In 1962, Howard sold Doyle Lock to Bob Hromadko and Merlin “Tope” Wilson and in 1972, Bob bought out Tope, becoming the sole owner of Doyle Lock.
Over the next eight years, Bob made several investments to better service Doyle’s customers, including hiring their first on-the-road salesman in 1976, producing their first hardware catalog in 1977, and installing WATS lines in 1978 to help customers get their orders in and out faster.
With the wholesale division of their business growing rapidly, Bob sold Doyle’s retail division to two employees in 1980 and bought a building two doors down at 208 N Washington, doubling Doyle Lock’s size to 6,500 square feet. Business boomed and in just five short years, Doyle doubled the number of employees from 10 to 25 and outgrew its space again.
In 1985 Doyle moved to its current location at 2201 W River Road N, more than doubling its size to 17,500 square feet, including 600 sq. ft. of new education space with a sweeping view of the Mississippi River for Doyle University.
Locksmiths from throughout the Midwest were planning to attend the Minnesota Locksmiths Guild Educational Weekend on the third weekend in September and Doyle Lock arranged an Open House on Saturday night for visiting locksmiths to tour the new building. As interest in the Open House grew, Doyle Lock invited twenty factory representatives to display their products. This event was very popular and in 1987, the event became the Doyle Trade Show still held every year on the third weekend of September.
The rise of computers in the 1980’s changed how the world conducted business and in 1987, Bob hired Paul Justen to spearhead the technological transformation of the company. In 1996, Bob sold Doyle Lock to Paul.
Recognizing changes in the industry, Paul decided to change the company name to Doyle Security Products in 1997. Over the next 23 years, Paul surfed the technology wave as the industry transformed to keep pace with the ever-evolving advancements in technology from high security keyway to app-based entries, leading the way in electronic security.
Doyle Security continued to grow and Paul took over the rest of the 19,000 square foot building, to stock their over 12,000 SKUs of inventory, and changed its address to 2211 West River Road N. Additionally, Doyle University’s education space grew to 960 square feet which can seat over 30 locksmiths for hands-on training by local and national industry leaders.
Paul’s children, Rob and Michelle, joined the team, working in every department to learn the ins and outs of the particular industry. In 2018, Rob became President of Doyle Security Products, taking over the day to day operations. Paul still serves in an advisory role and Michelle serves as the Marketing and Events Manager.
Under Rob’s leadership, Doyle Security Products remains a leader in the industry. From the dedicated, knowledgeable staff and cutting-edge products down to the free coffee in the display room, Doyle Security Products continues to provide the outstanding service customers have come to expect over these past 100 years, and is ready to tackle whatever the next 100 years may bring.
Blast From The Past
The neon sign (pictured) was proudly displayed at ‘Doyle Lock Company’ at 304 Nicollet Avenue when John Whited first started cleaning windows and sweeping floors in 1956. In 1958, Doyle moved to 200 North Washington Avenue. The sign was taken down and disappeared into storage for some 60 years. In March of 2021, the sign resurfaced to a good Doyle customer, Gary from Lockguard, who was on a service call at a sign shop in Bloomington. He saw the sign and realized there must be a connection to his security hardware supplier. He reached out to Doyle with an image from his cell phone. Doyle was immediately interested in knowing more about it. From the information gathered, the sign was stored at the Washington Avenue location and was then purchased by the sign company when they were out installing other signage at a nearby location. They brought the sign back to working condition and hung it at their office in the break area. Being this is Doyle’s 100 year in business, we were excited to reunite with it and keep part of Doyle’s history alive. It now hangs in our training room in the original neon green color and patina to remain completely nostalgic. Make sure to check it out next time you are at Doyle for a training!
