ADS adds $70,000 in RMR in latest buy in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—ADS Security, continuing to expand its footprint in the Southeast, has acquired 3,200 customer accounts from Professional Alarms of Clarkesville, Tenn.

Some 70 percent of those accounts are residential, according to John Cerasuolo, ADS president and CEO.

“It's a good mix,” Cerasuolo told Security Systems News.

The Professional Alarms acquisition adds just under $70,000 in RMR to ADS, bringing its total to nearly $2.5 million, he said.

ADS, headquartered here, has a presence in seven states and has been on a recent buying spree. This acquisition follows ADS' purchases of five security companies last year in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.

“We are at a very steady pace when it comes to acquisitions. Our focus is on the Southeast states, and we're continuing efforts on acquisitions to fill in gaps in places where we want to be. It's about branch density. We want to have local offices, be a local company with the strength of a big company,” Cerasuolo said.

One of ADS's priorities is to retain as many employees as it can from the companies it acquires, he said, and it will do so with Professional Alarms. Former owner Steve K. Allensworth and his team will be joining ADS.

“We love it when the owners [and other employees] stay with us. That's our goal,” Cerasuolo said, noting that keeping familiar faces on board adds to his company's local-feel, customer-service ethic.

“We're a buy-and-grow. We do well in acquisitions because we're competing with those [other potential purchasers] who just want to buy the accounts,” he said. He thinks that approach has led to his success over competing interested buyers, he said.

ADS will be adding more sales staff and technicians in the near future, he said, and it has three other potential acquisitions “in the pipeline” that should close by the end of the year.

ADS, 25 years old, offers residential and commercial security and automation services, including mobile management, smart home technologies, video surveillance and access control solutions, and also provides a UL-listed, CSAA Five Diamond monitoring center in Nashville.