Dorma Group Ltd have been designers and manufacturers of some of the worlds finest quality fabrics since 1838. In 1998, the management decided to upgrade their security and install an access control system for their head office in Swinton. After looking at several security systems they finally decided to implement a Tensor WinTA system because they liked the speed and ease-of-use of Tensor Smart Cards and felt that Tensor's Smart Cards were “strong and durable”.

A WinTA system was installed and became operational in May 1999 for around 240 employees, including those who were not always at the office on a day to day basis, such sales representatives.
Important to Dorma, was not only the control of 9 key access points, including the main entrance and the computer room, but also a simple-to-use but effective Fire Roll call system. It was also essential that the new system would provided control over 2 car park barriers, one of which needed to have a modem, as it was too far away from the main building for any other type of communication.

The Personnel Department operate the WinTA system, completing such tasks as adding new card holders and controlling their access patterns. Data is automatically backed up each night by Dorma's file servers.

Malcolm Shone, Maintenance Manager, commented “Tensor have given us everything we wanted and the great thing about their system is that you can easily set the security level on any of the doors”

From the success of Swinton, Dorma installed a further WinTA system at their distribution site in Salford. Like Swinton, it controls access and fire roll call, but is also used for Time & Attendance for the 100 strong workforce.

“We run a fire test and report of who is here weekly to ensure that the system is functioning correctly.” explained Malcolm to the Tensor journalist as he showed him around the site.

“Reliability is the best thing about Tensor” concluded Malcolm, >q>we have only had one problem where we had to call them out within the past 5 years” he said.

Customer Information

In 1838, in Manchester, the "centre of World trade in textiles" , two Roberts brothers founded a company to weave and produce the finest quality fabrics available anywhere in the world. In 1923 the Dorma brand was created to offer these fine quality fabrics pre packaged and immaculate, as they left the factory straight onto the retailers' shelves. This was the first time bedding had been offered in this way.

Throughout its history Dorma has led the market and changed the Nation's sleeping habits. Developments such as printed bedlinen in the 60's (quite a revolution at the time!), the introduction of mass produced quilt covers, radically changing the way we sleep from traditional sheets and blankets, and the invention of easy care polyester cotton, all had a far reaching influence on interior fashions in an increasingly busy world.

Today's busy, active lives call for bedlinen designs which are as easy to care for as they are enjoyable to use. All of our bedlinen products are machine washable even our luxurious jacquard designs, although we do advise that you dry clean some of our accessory products. All the dyes are colour fast and you can be confident of many years of use, with your bedlinen looking as good as new.

The company continues to create new and international markets for its world wide brand name, whilst still maintaining its insistence on quality, reliability and design excellence.

The Dorma bedlinen collection consists of designs to meet different tastes from modern simple abstract designs, elegant floral designs to sophisticated classical designs. All Dorma products are of the highest quality and originally designed in the Dorma Studio based in Manchester UK, the largest and most technically advanced home furnishings studio in Europe.

For more information about Dorma or the products they supply please visit their website at : www.dorma.co.uk