Bates Security and Sonitrol of Lexington secured $10m line of credit

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Capital One provided a five-year $10 million senior revolving line of credit to Bates Security and Sonitrol of Lexington, the financial institution announced yesterday.

“We are simply positioning ourselves for … continued aggressive growth,” Jeremy Bates, company president, told Security Systems News. Seventy percent of Bates Security's revenue is from commercial and 30 percent is from residential, Bates said; additionally its customer based is currently 58 percent residential and 42 percent commercial.

“We were looking at our five-year growth plan and realized that we needed a banking facility that better suited our needs,” Bates said, adding that the company had a great relationship with a local bank in the past.

“We needed to move to a partner like Capital One to fund the aggressive organic growth strategies we put in place and then also to make sure that we were able to quickly move on any acquisitions that come our way,” said Bates.

Most recently, Bates Security acquired 1,500 accounts from Kentucky Alarm Services in 2015. Bates said that the company would be looking to acquire within its footprint of northern and central Kentucky and around Jacksonville, Fla.

When the company opened its branch in Jacksonville, Fla., last year, it had initially planned to focus on commercial. Now, the branch is expanding to cover residential opportunities as well, Bates said.

“Bates Security has a dynamic business model,” John Robuck, Capital One's managing director of the security finance, said in a prepared statement. “This new capital puts the company on a trajectory for further growth.”

Bates also recently hired two new sales managers including Russ Ackerman, who was brought on to manage residential and small business sales for Bates' Jacksonville branch. Ackerman has more than 30 years experience in the security industry.

Brandt Phillips, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience, was hired to manage sales in the company's Lexington branch.