B Safe acquires two in New Jersey

WILMINGTON, Del.—B Safe, based here, recently made two buys in New Jersey, giving the company more depth in that state, according to Mary Cakir, customer service manager for the regional security and fire company.

B Safe acquired Tatra Security Systems, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., in the northern part of that state; and Radar Security Systems, of Mantua, N.J., which is in the southern part of the state.

The acquisitions added 2,000 accounts to B Safe, bringing its total customer base to about 9,500, Cakir said. The deal brought $75,000 in RMR, boosting B Safe's RMR to $275,000 she said. The accounts were evenly split between residential and commercial, she said.

“We were attracted to those two particular acquisitions because they're traditional security dealers and they share our common goal of providing true security to consumers at fair prices with outstanding customer service,” Cakir told Security Systems News.

B Safe likes to keep business within a 90-mile radius of its main office. But Cakir noted that the company does business in four states within that radius: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The company made several acquisitions in New Jersey in 2012. But the latest two buys strengthen the company's position there, according to Cakir and company President Philip Gardner, who founded the company more than 35 years ago.

B Safe had a second office in Pittman, N.J. but with the buy of Radar Security in nearby Mantua, has decided to close the Pittman office and relocate operations to the former Radar office, Cakir said.

“We were just renting an office in Pittman and when we got Radar Security we had an established office with computers and inventory, so we just moved the Pittman office over to Mantua,” she explained.

The Radar and Tatra companies both had loyal, longtime customers that B Safe will now have the opportunity to upgrade to home automation services, Cakir noted.

Both acquisitions were facilitated by John Colehower of New Jersey-based Mergers & Acquisitions. Terms of the deal were not released.

Cakir said the owners of the two companies plan to retire in a year but will stay on with B Safe in a limited sales or service capacity until then.

But other employees of the company will join B Safe, she said. “Between the two companies we added about 10 new employees for a total of about 40 now,” Cakir said.

She said that growth in 2013 was about 15 percent, which all came organically. In 2014, she said, “what we want to do is consolidate the recent acquisitions and push hard with our organic growth.”

But the company is eying four potential acquisitions for this year as well, she said.

Cakir added that the company stands out for the way it treats customers and gets a lot of its business by word of mouth. “Customer service is what we're really good at. … We get awards. We're a Honeywell First Alert authorized dealer and we always get recognized for our outstanding customer service,” she said.