A FORMER soldier is opening a locksmith shop in Wellington town centre.

Wellington Locksmith Shop will welcome its first customers at 28 High Street from 9am on Saturday (January 20).

Nigel Burrows, who lives in the town, already runs a mobile 24/7 locksmith service offering repairs, upgrades and emergency access to all kinds of locks.

The shop will provide a new service, engraving for trophies and awards, photo frames and gifts, as well as key cutting and bench locksmith services, including the order and preparation of high security locks, keyed alike locks and much more.

The shop will be open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 3pm and Saturday 9am to 3pm, as well as Mr Burrows still being available all hours for emergencies, while offering appointments for repairs, installations and upgrades around these times during the week for homes and businesses.

Mr Burrows currently works for many local private clients, landlords and businesses in the area, and work can often include services for local authority and agencies.

He previously served in the Royal Engineers, has also worked for British Telecom as a multi-skilled engineer and previously ran a corporate events business.

Further training has taught him how to include CCTV and alarms installation and electrical Pat testing to his services.

Mr Burrows said: "The best thing about being self-employed and totally independent is that there is no limitation to the products I can normally offer to fit for a client's requirements.

"Seeing a customer happy about a product or repair they thought couldn’t be done is very satisfying."