Lock Jaw Ladder Grip is racking up the exports and awards

A revolutionary ladder safety device developed in a Brisbane backyard has been exported overseas and is in-line for a swag of awards.

Gail Bray and Craig Charlton with the Lock Jaw Ladder Grip.

Ladders may be an essential tool for tradies and the home handyman but danger lurks.

It was this realisation that led Craig Charlton to the revolutionary Lock Jaw Ladder Grip which after more than 20 years since his father Bob started tinkering around with the idea is now being exported to New Zealand, Europe, the US and Canada.

The world’s only ladder stabiliser of its kind – an Australian and international patented clamping jaw that locks itself on the lip of the gutter – has been embraced by the Swedish Fire Brigade, US insurance companies, renowned big box retailers Home Depot and Lowes, via their online stores and in Australia it’s been on 250 Bunnings stores shelves for years.

Mr Charlton said the genesis of the Jaw Lock Ladder Grip came after his father had an accident while painting their Queenslander with an old Telecom wooden ladder at their Brisbane home in the ‘70s.

“He told my sister and I not to play in the area and if the ladder falls that’s where it will go. As things would have it the ladder started to slide and he gave himself a double hernia trying to hold it,” he said.

Mr Charlton said his father was an inventor and the incident ensured ladder safety was always at the back of his mind.

It came to the forefront after seeing the growth in satellite dishes on roofs and the obvious need to prevent ladders from sliding. In 2004 and he started to create a few prototypes.

“That’s when I got involved to modify design and there were about seven different patented prototypes would you believe before we finally came up with the final version,” Mr Charlton said.

“Sadly he passed away in 2009 as we got this product on the market.”

An environmental lawyer Mr Charlton said he had sorted out the intellectual property rights, manufacturing and logistics for the product.

However, it was on the market for sometime without setting the world on fire.

Loch Door Ladder Grip director Craig Charlton and general manager Gail Bray with the device.

That all changed when his wife Gail Bray – who was an industrial chemist in the oil and gas industry – took redundancy in 2018 and the business went from being a hobby to a full time multi award-winning enterprise.

“That was the big lesson for me anyway that as one person you can’t do everything. Gail brought a strong focus on marketing and promotion and it really hit the road running,” Mr Charlton said.

In 2018 the business was selling about 200 units and had revenue of about $10,000, and had no retailers, no distributors with its sales all online.

Fast forward to the 2024 financial year and they sold 13,000 units and recorded revenue of $1.6m with the aim of increasing that by 50 per cent in FY25.

Ms Bray said since their focus changed they started scoring some big wins.

They turbocharged their social media presence with its global profile boosted along with viral TikTok and Instagram videos, with one clocking more than 20 million views.

They also linked up with the Swedish Fire Brigade.

“The Swedish Fire Brigade discovered us on the web. They loved it which was a big win for us. They are very professional, high quality and did a lot of testing on the product and they said it exceeded all their expectations,” Ms Bray said.

“The third big thing was building our reputation and Bunnings started selling the product in their stores in 2019 and we have been on their shelves ever since.”

As well as Bunnings the device is also used by power companies such as Ergon Energy and Energex in Australia and New Zealand electricity distributor Powerco, while the NBN also ensures its contractors use it.

The Chinese-built device contains an adjustable locking mechanism that secures it to a range of gutter types without causing damage to the guttering and can be used for a variety of ladder sizes.

It is manufactured from UV protected, glass filled nylon and steel, making it strong and durable, yet lightweight and easily portable. It has been static load tested to 100kg.

The devicesells for $129 and with so many orders the company uses Eagle Farm based Help Enterprises, a social enterprise that employs people with a disability, for all of its third party logistics requirements in Australia.

Lock Jaw Ladder Grip has been a finalist for the prestigious 2021 Australian Workplace Health & Safety Awards and won the “Best new tool” award at the International Roofing Expo 2020.

It is the Queensland finalist in the eCommerce category at the upcoming 62nd Australian Export Awards, which will be held in Canberra on November 20.

With some 37 million ladder incidents reported worldwide each year, Ms Bray said there was room for expansion.

“We have three ways to market - eCommerce through Amazon; to distributors and we’re adding new ones all the time;, and we sell to commercial customers,” she said.

“There’s a lot of growth because we don’t do any advertising and that’s where I’m going to focus for the next 12 months to build the brand and promote the products in the US and Europe. We also have a new model coming out next year which has extra features.”