Our History
While working for the Ministry of Defence where he had trained as an electronics engineer, Barrie Christie was asked to install a burglar alarm as a nominal favour for a business friend who had a chain of 27 shops.
His reputation quickly spread and it wasn't long before he was being recommended by insurance companies and on the list of Police approved burglar alarm installers.
So in 1967 he decided to go into partnership with his wife, Janet. In 1970 they registered the name Christie Intruder Alarms (CIA) Ltd and Janet designed the "crooked man" logo which is so widely recognised today. In 1971, they moved into their first office which was not much bigger than a cupboard.
From these modest beginnings, the company has grown to be the largest independent intruder alarm company in the UK.
In 1983, the company commissioned purpose built offices in Waterlooville and, in 1985, another office block was built on the site for sister company, Southern Monitoring Services - the third largest alarm receiving centre in the UK, and the largest independent receiving centre in Europe. Together, the two companies currently employ almost 300 staff.
No one cares more for customer service and quality of engineering than Barrie Christie. His favourite saying is "Never worry if someone is cheaper than us. Worry if someone is better." The company's philosophy has always been forward thinking and bold. CIA prides itself on innovation, staying ahead of the current trends in technology, and places great emphasis on apprenticeship, training and staff development.
In fact, one of our first apprentices, Steve Kimber, is now the Managing Director of Christie Intruder Alarms and both Southern and Northern Monitoring Services.
Steve joined CIA straight from school in 1974. Having qualified as an engineer by gaining his City & Guild in Electronics at Highbury College as a day release student, he went on to become a supervisor before moving into alarm monitoring and was appointed General Manager of Southern Monitoring Services Ltd in 1983.
He was promoted to Managing Director in 1987 and in 2000 he also became the Managing Director of CIA. It is due to Steve's foresight, knowledge and hard work that the Group successfully launched a second Alarm Receiving Centre - Northern Monitoring Services Ltd - in Manchester in 2004, of which he is also Managing Director.
Steve is well respected in the industry, sitting on various national committees and councils including;
- Chairman of the FSA (Fire and Security Association)
- FSA’s representative on the ECA Council
- Director of ELECSA the ECA’s certification body
- Member of the NSI's Security Systems Sector Committee and Fire Systems Sector Committee
- Member of the British Standards Institute representing the Security Industry on various BSI Committees
He also sits on various adhoc technical working groups associated with FSA, ECA, FPA, SSAIB, NSI or BSI and represents the Security Industry through the FSA to ACPO, ABI, Home Office & the SIA.
Barrie (as Chairman) and Janet (as Company Secretary) are still actively involved with the daily running of the company and have been joined by their son Antony who is responsible for the web, the intranet and developing e-commerce, and daughter Gail who, with an MA in Marketing, is the Marketing Manager.
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