Allied Universal

Allied Universal, a leading facility services company and one of the largest security forces in North America, marked its one-year anniversary this week after forming a year ago via the merger of AlliedBarton Security Services and Universal Services of America.

In the announcement, Steve Jones, Allied Universal CEO, thanked all of the company’s 150,000 employees and its clients “for their continued support and commitment that contributed to a phenomenal first year as our new company! I look forward to our continued success in the security and services industries."

Over the past year the company has made several acquisitions, as it continues to transform to a full-service security company, moving beyond the manguarding services the it has been known for.

Jones told Security Systems News, after the company’s most recent acquisition of ALERT Protective Services in May, that the company continues to look at acquisitions as a way to diversify its offerings.

“We’ve got a pretty robust pipeline of deals that we are looking at—some in the technology space and some in the traditional manguarding space—and we hope to announce a few more before the year is over that will help us to diversify our company and bring more value to our clients.”

In the press release announcing the one-year milestone, the company outlined some additional organizational achievements since the merger:

•    Became the unequivocal leader in guarding services throughout North America. Our security professionals and our company play a major role in keeping the U.S. and Canada safe and secure.

•    Provided service to over half of the Fortune 500 companies and nearly every major retail mall in the U.S. From healthcare facilities, commercial office buildings, manufacturing and industrial plants, residential communities, transportation facilities and government services, Allied Universal has a significant security presence.

•    Managed the integration of a workforce of over 150,000 security professionals to perform our jobs on a daily basis and serve our growing customer base.

•    Implemented a world-class training program, the AU Institute, which offers over 1,000 training assets and professional development programs to enhance our security professionals' delivery of service and protection.

•    Introduced several technological innovations to expand our physical and operational security solutions and service offerings to enhance the protection of client properties and assets.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. and SANTA ANA, Calif.—Allied Universal continues to diversify with the acquisition of ALERT Protective Services, a residential community security firm based in Sarasota, Fla.

“This is a company that does most of the high-end residential communities in South Florida,” Allied Universal CEO Steve Jones told Security Systems News. “Not only are they providing the security guard services but they do it differently where they use technology to help augment that, which is what we have been pushing toward and striving toward with our business.”

With a portfolio that consists of 95 percent residential condominiums and communities, ALERT Protective Services owns the homeowners association and residential lifestyle communities’ security space in Southwest and Southeast Florida. Founded in 2005, the company has more than $10 million in revenue and 430 employees, most of which will be joining Allied Universal.

“We are excited to join Allied Universal,” Jeff Haidet, CEO of ALERT Protective Services, said in the announcement. “Both companies embrace combining the use of state-of-the-art technology with manpower to provide an optimal solution to our customers. We also share the same passion and commitment to be the employer of choice for security professionals and provider of choice for security users.”

Similarly to Allied Universal, ALERT Protective Services offers integrated security systems and uniformed security professionals to work in tandem with a complete security program at community gatehouses, concierge desks, or security command centers. Some of these solutions include remote video monitoring, access control and an electronic patrol-reporting program that enables security professionals to report threats in real time and alert authorities if back up is needed.

“This was an opportunity for us to not only expand our footprint in Florida, but to really get a springboard on providing those security officer services along with remote video monitoring and the use of technology for ingress and egress around the community, which is where we want to focus on,” said Jones. “We are excited that we can leverage the technology applications that we feel are changing and enhancing the industry.”

Moving forward, Jones said the company still has a few more acquisitions up its sleeve.

“We’ve got a pretty robust pipeline of deals that we are looking at—some in the technology space and some in the traditional manguarding space—and we hope to announce a few more before the year is over that will help us to diversify our company and bring more value to our clients.”

With headquarters in Santa Ana, Calif., and Conshohocken, Pa., Allied Universal has more than 150,000 employees across North America.

Allied Universal, a national facility services company and security force with more than 150,000 employees, has acquired the security services portion of Yale Enforcement Services, Inc., a Belleville, Ill.-based company that offers a full range of solutions, including uniformed security professionals, mobile patrol, physical security and life safety. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“What we really liked about Yale is that they do very strong business in the healthcare vertical, and that business is spread throughout multiple regions,” Allied Universal CEO Steve Jones told Security Systems News. “And we feel we have a variety of really good service offerings to offer in that vertical.”

Yale was also looking to provide ancillary services such as electronic security systems and security technology, an area “that we are highly committed to, so we feel those customers will fit very nicely into our organization,” said Jones. “Also, our service offerings that we have will not only enhance the relationship but also be something that the customers are excited about and embrace.”

Yale Enforcement's 1,800-plus employees serve a range of vertical markets including healthcare, manufacturing, industrial, warehouse/distribution, commercial real estate and retail throughout the Central, Midwestern and Southern states.

"Allied Universal sets the industry standard for professionalism and we know our security services clients will be well taken care of," Barbara Yale, president and CEO, Yale Enforcement said in a prepared statement.

On the acquisition front, the company “will continue to be inquisitive in 2017,” said Jones. “We plan on making at least one but hopefully two, sizable acquisitions in the security systems space by the end of the year as well.”

With the mega-merger in August between Allied Barton and Universal Services of America, 2016 was a very busy and successful year for the combined companies.

“We are now fully integrated, so we are completely rebranded and integrated,” said Jones. “We achieved the goal of doing that is six months and also made three other acquisitions and got some good mid-single digit organic growth, so we are pretty excited about all of that. In 2017, we project that we will end the year in 2017 somewhere between $5.2 - $5.3 billion in revenues and that is without any additional acquisitions.”

Allied Universal also announced a partnership with the Clery Center, a national, non-profit training and policy organization dedicated to creating safer campus communities, to develop video-based training tools for line campus public safety personnel. The roll-call training program for campus public safety and security professionals is scheduled to be released during National Campus Safety Awareness Month in September.

As a leading security services provider to the Higher Education sector, Allied Universal services nearly 200 colleges and universities at over 500 campus locations nationwide.