ADS buys in Wisconsin

AURORA, Ill.—With its acquisition of Apex Alarm Systems, Alarm Detection Systems deepened its presence in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin, while bolstering the services available to Apex's customers.

The acquisition helps ADS, whose market saturation is mainly in northern Illinois, expand its footprint in the Kenosha area, where it already has some accounts, marketing director John Schwartz told Security Systems News.

Located between Milwaukee and Chicago, Kenosha sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan. In the deal, ADS picked up several hundred accounts from Apex, worth about $15,000 in RMR, said Schwartz. The accounts are evenly split between residential and commercial.

ADS will maintain all of the services Apex offered its customers. "One of the main changes is that we have our own UL-listed monitoring station,” he said. “They'll have the ability to bring monitoring to their customers instead of having to outsource that."

Apex's sales office is staying open, while proprietor Jim Pascucci and his son, James, are joining the ADS team, Schwartz said. ADS has had a close working relationship with Pascucci and the two businesses shared similar goals.

“When an outstanding operator in our area is available for purchase, we are very aggressive in putting a seller-friendly deal together,” said Terry Olah, VP and CFO of ADS. “The seller will get a great deal from us, the new accounts will enjoy our responsive service and expanded offerings, we will be a great employer for the seller's employees, and finally, we select and integrate acquisitions in a manner that makes financial sense to us. Everyone wins.”

In its 45-year history, ADS has acquired 60 companies. “We're always looking for quality companies to invest in,” Schwartz said.