Guardian buys Ranger's Florida operations, accounts

WARRENDALE, Pa.--Russ Cersosimo, chief executive officer of super-regional security company Guardian Protection, expects the Oct. 1 acquisition of Ranger American's Florida operations to increase Guardian's gross revenues by $20 million. In 2006, Guardian reported gross revenues of $107 million. "I pity the competition in Florida," Cersosimo said. The acquisition includes five offices in Florida: Orlando, Bradenton, Melbourne, Tampa and Ft. Myers. Ranger American/Florida was part of Ranger American, ADT's largest dealer. All of the 225 Florida employees will become Guardian employees. The acquisition adds 80 builder partners and "800 rooftops per month to Guardian's production within its product lines of installed home security, structured wiring, distributed audio and other home technologies." The Florida offices and accounts will be rebranded gradually as Guardian offices. Guardian made its first entry into Florida several months ago with a small acquisition in Sarasota. "We got our first introduction there and we like what we see so far," Cersosimo said. He is particularly excited about the high-quality employees that will be joining Guardian and the possibilities for the builder program. "We have the most lucrative builder program for the builders and they [Ranger American/Florida] have a relationship with the builders down there. Between that and the relationship we have with national builders, we should really develop that market," he said. He expects Guardian's "centralized infrastructure, sophisticated systems, and marketing capabilities to combine well with Ranger's experience and existing builder relationships." Guardian, one of the Armstrong Group of companies, designs, installs and monitors residential and commercial security systems and has about 200,000 customers. Its Guardian Home Technologies markets to 300 national builders. It does structured wiring for new construction, including Internet, home/office networking, distributed audio, home theatre, flat screen TV, intercom and central vac. Guardian has offices in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Its authorized dealer program parallels this coverage and expands it into Connecticut and New York. The Ranger American/Florida acquisition brings the number of Guardian's Florida-based offices to six, and the total of Guardian corporately owned offices to 20. Terms of the deal were not released. Asked why Ranger decided to sell its Florida operations to Guardian, Cersosimo said with a laugh, "I made them an offer they couldn't refuse."