By DPA,
London : British savers with too much cash to hide under the mattress have been buying up household safes to protect their wealth from the global market turmoil, the Times newspaper said Thursday.
One company said that sales had increased by a quarter, while another said that its staff had received calls from panicking investors who now wanted to keep their savings locked away at home.
“It’s simple: if there’s a lack of confidence in banks, people buy and fit European and insurance-approved safes and put the contents on their home insurance,” said Russ Reader, managing director of Leigh Safes.
The company had seen a 25-percent increase in sales and enquiries over the last months, especially for higher-grade safes approved by insurers, he said.
Anthony Neary, a partner at Safe Shop, an internet-based sales company, said he had been staggered by the recent “sea change” in public opinion on the issue.
“There’s no question that people are thinking about it. In a month or two I expect a dramatic increase in the sales of residential-user safes,” he said, adding that people’s anxiety over their savings would grow in the pre-Christmas rush.