Changing of the guard

NASHVILLE - At the beginning of the year, ADS Security launched an effort to rename its 13 branch locations in the Southeast under the ADS Security banner in an effort to increase brand awareness. Until this point, ADS acquired companies and continued to keep the original names to ease the transition of ownership. Now, according to Mel Mahler, president of ADS Security, the time came to transfer those names to ADS Security. He said the streamlined brand will serve as a tool in promoting the company’s footprint in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia. “People are moving and when they see our office names, they don’t see that as us,” Mahler said. “This is an opportunity for people moving around the Southeast to stay with us and think, ‘Wow, ADS is everywhere.” Scott Reinke, the general manager of ADS Security in Savannah, Ga., formerly known as United Security, said the company’s branding initiative pushes ADS towards meeting sales goals. “I think they are making the name universal in terms of buying power,” Reinke said. According to Reinke, United Security, which was acquired by ADS, is 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial in terms of accounts and currently handles 57,000 contracts, in August 1990, was the first of the 13 branches to undergo the transition to the new name. Mahler said he expects all the locations to move over to the ADS name by the end of 2005, with the exception of the company’s largest acquisition to date, Fox Alarm, which was acquired by ADS in 2003 and added 15,000 accounts to its customer base. Fox Alarm’s switch to the ADS name is expected to take longer due to the sheer size of the company. Mahler noted the name change is long overdue.“It’s something that we really should have done sooner,” Mahler said. “Having the offices under the same name will show the power of having 13 offices in the Southeast.”