Interface Security is poised for growth

EARTH CITY, Mo.-Interface Security Systems wrapped up moving its headquarters to a new facility here in early June, bringing the company's St. Louis branch, corporate office and central station under one roof and in a larger space. The new location now provides the systems integrator with room to grow five fold over the next five years, a plan company officials have begun to execute through buying other installation companies. The company invested $1 million to build out the raw, 22,000 square-foot space it will lease for at least the next seven years. Another $500,000 was spent to improve computer and central station related equipment. "The headquarters was a move that was critical for us to have adequate space to accommodate our growth," said Michael Shaw, chief executive officer of Interface Security Systems. In a short time, Interface Security expects to add 8,000 new customers through multiple acquisitions now in the works. "We are currently working on six transactions that we expect to close in the next 30 days," said Shaw during an interview in early June. Those transactions will represent about a 25 percent increase in subscribers for the company, which runs its own central station. In all, the company services 30,000 accounts across a seven-state region. With several acquisitions on the horizon, the new headquarters comes at a good time for Interface Security. The space includes a 2,000 square foot central station, triple the size of the company's previous facility. "On the central station side we built a platform for our anticipated growth with room to accommodate 150,000 central station customers in our current center," said Mike McCloud, president of Interface Security. Besides a new central station, Interface Security's new headquarters includes a 25-seat business development center where sales representatives set up appointments with customers to support field efforts. On the technology side, the facility has two fiber optic cable feeds providing redundant service into the central station. "It's fully redundant and comes from two separate Southwestern Bell service centers," said Shaw. "Both cables would have to be interrupted at the same time or both bell service offices would have to go out of commission at the same time in order for us to lose redundancy." Interface Security has operations in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and Eastern Texas. It also owns and operates eight Sonitrol franchises and another central station in Little Rock, Ark.