Palmetto Security moves into Clarendon Cty

KINGSTREE, S.C.--David Rose, owner of Palmetto Security, had his eye on the growing number of retirees settling in nearby Clarendon County when he decided to acquire a group of accounts from Protection Plus in Sumter, S.C. Sandwiched between Williamsburg County, where Palmetto Security is headquartered, and Sumter County, home of Protection Plus, is Clarendon County, which "195 goes right through. It has two large lakes and a lot of retirees are moving there. I wanted to raise my visibility in that area," Rose said. Rose acquired 200 accounts in late December, including some in Clarendon County, from Protection Plus. Ken Turner, owner of Protection Plus, will close his company, but continue to work for Palmetto on a part-time basis. Rose has five technicians, two office staff. This acquisition brings the total number of Palmetto customers to 1,200. Palmetto customers are 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial. All monitoring is contracted out. Rose opened shop in 1983. An electrical engineer by training, Rose said he got into the security business by accident. "I started out part-time. I was doing a friend who wanted an alarm system installed a favor." That experience prompted him to get incorporated and run a part-time alarm business. "Eventually, I decided to pull the corporate plug and go into the alarm business full time," he explained. In 2006, Rose will expand into Clarenden County and do more work in the fastest growing part of his business: video, which accounted for 30 percent of his business in 2005. Some of that was residential work, but most of it was commercial. As the price of video products has come down, Rose's commercial video customers have grown. He's done CCTV systems for farmers who want to keep an eye on their crops and valuable equipment. He's also involved in a series of projects for the local timber industry to eliminate fraud at weigh stations. In projects like this, Rose said, "we use standard products in innovative ways to help out customers with a particular problem. I enjoy that kind of thing."