Electric Guard Dog acquires

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Electric Guard Dog, a nationwide provider of electric fencing and perimeter security based here, on Sept. 6 announced its acquisition of Perimeter Security Systems.

PSS has 180 locations, mainly concentrated in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, Electric Guard Dog's CEO Jack DeMao told Security Systems News. EGD had about 3,400 locations prior to the acquisition, he added. In addition to gaining PSS's customer contracts, a number of field service technicians joined EGD from PSS. He declined to release the price of the deal.

“This acquisition is one of the few opportunities for us to grow by acquisition,” DeMao said, though EGD could still grow by acquisition in the future. “Future acquisitions will probably be focused around product and technology enhancements. For example, buying a company … that brings in additional video or access control technologies,” he said.

“We already blend a certain amount of video and access control in with electric fences to enhance [their] use … in the future we think that integration will be more important,” DeMao continued.

EGD plans to triple its business in the next five to seven years, according to DeMao.  “We normally grow at about 15 percent a year—we've been blessed with that since about 2007. Our goal now is to kick it up to 20 percent a year minimum, and hopefully 25 percent certain years,” he said.

Electric Guard Dog's adopted this growth plan following its acquisition by the Snow Phipps Group in June.

To facilitate this growth, the company is expanding its support and its team; EGD plans to increase its staff by about 50 percent in the next six to 12 months, according to DeMao. “Our next phase is to dramatically increase the number of people we have in sales,” he said.

“We're going to quickly outgrow our headquarters,” DeMao continued. The company is looking to relocate its headquarters to a facility that is at least 50 percent larger by February 2016, he said, and will stay local to Columbia, S.C.