In 1903, three Swedish immigrants saw a need for mortise furniture locks. Together they invested $5,000 each and established National Lock Company in Rockford, Illinois. In 1939, Keystone Steel and Wire acquired National Lock. The company and the product line grew to include pin and disc tumbler locks, kitchen cabinet and furniture hardware, fasteners, appliance hardware, metal stampings, chair hardware, and door locks.
In the 1960's, hardware operations became known as National Lock Hardware until Keystone itself was acquired in 1981. Our original product line, cabinet locks, became a division of Valhi, Inc., whose operations moved to a new manufacturing facility in Mauldin, South Carolina, with the National Cabinet Lock name, to identify the concentration on lock manufacturing.
National Cabinet Lock Inc., which later changed to CompX International Inc., was incorporated in 1993 as a subsidiary of Valhi and became a public company in March 1998 with two operating units: National Cabinet Lock and Waterloo Furniture Components. CompX currently includes several companies that manufacture components for a variety of industrial uses and is traded on the NYSE American under the symbol "CIX."
