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Andy Peltier is the new owner of Haven’s for Total Security, the longtime Fresno business started by Gary Haven Young in 1976. Photo by Edward Smith

published on September 16, 2019 - 1:57 PM
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One of the oldest security companies in Fresno has turned the keys over to new ownership.

Known for its locksmithing, safes and key cutting in Downtown Fresno, Haven’s for Total Security, Inc. was sold by Gary Haven Young to Andy Peltier earlier this month. And as 34-year-old Peltier and business partner Chris Shafer take on a 43-year-old business, they hope to catch it up to emerging technologies.

Peltier comes to Fresno by way of Providence, Rhode Island through the University of Arizona, where he met his wife. A Fresno native herself, she brought Peltier to the Central Valley where his interest in mechanized systems lead him to start his own company, Restaurant Equipment Repair.

While he said business was good, finding good people to tend to the scores of eateries needing work on stoves, ovens, refrigerators and more kept his business from booming, until he saw Haven’s posted on a website listing businesses for sale.

Peltier had been to Haven’s on Blackstone Avenue a few time to have keys cut. While he said he felt overwhelmed at first by the inventory on the walls, he recognized that though the mechanics between locks and commercial stoves may function differently, the similarities outweigh the differences.

Young opened Haven’s as a kiosk at Chestnut and Kings Canyon avenues Aug. 5, 1976.

Young had his own experience in acquisitions, buying Ceronsky’s Locksmith in 1982 and Edward’s Lock and Safe Co. in 2004. Young had begun by cutting keys and locksmithing, expanding to electronic security and safe installation. But health and over 30 years in the business lead Young to decide to sell.

By the time Peltier and Shafer bought it, it had become a one-acre facility with nine service vehicles.

Where Peltier wants to take the business is security cameras and access control — or identification cards that use radio frequency to let employees into businesses.

“You go in and each little office has an alarm,” Peltier said. “You see security cameras everywhere right now. It’s pretty standard.”

With co-owner Shafer as CEO of EKC Enterprises, Inc., a company specializing in low-voltage component installation, the expansion seems a natural fit for Peltier.

Coming into an established business made Peltier a little nervous about their attitudes toward a new boss. Pretty soon, however he discovered employees were eager about expanding into different areas. One employee, Israel, took his interest in cars and showed Peltier what it would cost to get into that part of the business. Another wanted to get into safe cracking for safe owners or police who need access to their safes. Peltier is sending him to a weeklong course in Tennessee to find out how to do it.

Peltier said he’ll be “investing back into the business to bring it to a place where it hasn’t been in a while, where it can grow, and the employees feel supported and they have the training and the tools and the knowledge and the resources to be able to do stuff that’s going to make us money.”


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