Easter's Lock & Access spins off two companies

BALTIMORE--Late last week, Easter's Lock & Access Systems, founded here in 1953, announced plans to spin off two additional companies: Easter's Access and Security Systems, to be headed by Bryan Eiser and Tony Markowski and located in Hunt Valley, Md.; and Easter's Bank Equipment & Security, to be headed by Robert Shepherd and located in downtown Baltimore. Second generation owner Robert Easter will remain owner and president of all three companies, with Drew Jackson managing the original Lock & Access company, which will remain in its current Towson location in Baltimore County. As the company names might suggest, the original company will continue to provide mechanical and electronic locking systems; Access and Security will specialize in access control, video surveillance, fire and burglar alarms and systems integration; and Bank Equipment will focus on turnkey installation and project management for the financial vertical, competing with the likes of Red Hawk and Diebold. "Everybody was starting to bump into each other," said Easter. "I told them all to go their separate ways ... It allows us to grow faster. I didn't want to stay stagnant." However, Easter emphasized the three companies will still work closely together. "We can do the whole job," he said. "I can do a door and frame. I can do the door opening, the access control and the video surveillance. We'll do any of it or all of it, but we do everything." Currently, the three companies employ a total of 35 people, three of them Cisco certified for increasingly network-oriented work. Also, "We're going for our [Government Services Administration schedule] right now," Easter noted. "Government is the next big thing for us." Moving forward, Easter wouldn't rule out taking his company public, but said recent accounting laws, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, make that less likely.