C.O.P.S. Monitoring buys Central One from Devcon

WILLIAMSTOWN, N.J.--C.O.P.S. Monitoring acquired Central One, of Boca Raton, Fla., from Devcon International, on Friday, June 23, for $5 million in cash. The buy positions the wholesale monitoring company to create yet another regional presence, in what it considers a strategic area of the Southeast market. After shedding the wholesale monitoring business, Devcon will concentrate solely on retail installations and monitoring. Don Maden, executive vice president of C.O.P.S. said, "not only was [Central One] a good acquisition candidate, but having a central station down here is something that just folds very nicely into our 'hub and spoke' strategy." The sale allows Devcon to "focus our efforts on providing enhanced services to customers who have contracted directly with us," said Stephen Ruzika, president and chief operating officer, in a written statement. With the purchase finalized, and more than 100,000 accounts acquired, C.O.P.S. will fold the Central One operation into its company. For the time being, "everything will be built around the Williamstown, N.J., office, which is the main center," Maden said. "The idea is to get to the point were localized and regionalized monitoring can be offered, but you don't necessarily replicate all the other overhead associated with running a company," he added, which, "allows us to capitalize on economies of scale." Although C.O.P.S. does not aggressively seek out acquisitions, Maden said, in the last two years, the company has made numerous buys to better position its reach into specific regions. In the summer of 2004, C.O.P.S. opened a monitoring center in Scottsdale, Ariz. Shortly after that, it added a location in Grapevine, Texas. The company's footprint expansion resumed with the purchase of ACM of Scottsdale, Ariz., in January. Maden said the company will work throughout the year with alarm dealers currently contracted with Central One to "integrate the best of what they have into what we have. We will then begin the database migration."