Guardian Alarm acquires two in Michigan

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.—Guardian Alarm Co., based here, recently added about 3,000 mostly residential accounts and $72,000 in RMR by acquiring two local competitors.

Guardian President David Goldstein told Security Systems News that Allstate Alarm Systems, based in Detroit, and Alert Alarm of Royal Oak, Mich., were both small companies, “but certainly ones that we were excited to have.”

He said the companies were already in Guardian's footprint. “That's the beauty of the [acquisitions]—we roll [them] right into our existing areas that we service today,” he said.

These are the first two acquisitions for Guardian this year, he said. In late 2011, Guardian acquired Cleveland-based American Alarm, adding 5,000 accounts and $130,000 of RMR.

Guardian, a family-owned company founded in 1930, touts itself as one of the largest independently owned security companies in North America. In addition to its Southfield location, it has two more offices in Michigan, in Lansing and Grand Rapids; three in Ohio, in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo; one in Boca Raton, Fla.; and one in Windsor, Ontario.

It also owns a guard company, Guardian Guard. Goldstein said that's an advantage that Guardian Alarm will be able to offer the customers it gained from Allstate Alarm and Alert Alarm.

“In Detroit, there's an ordinance that states that you have to have either video verification and/or multiple trips on an alarm in order for [city] police to pursue and if not, you need to have a guard,” he said. “Well, we offer guard response.”

Goldstein declined to reveal terms of the acquisitions but said the purchases were made with cash.

He said Allstate Alarm, which has about 600 accounts, had been in business for about 40 years and its two owners, who were its sole employees, wanted to retire.

Guardian hired six of the nine employees at Alert Alarm, Goldstein said. The owners of that company wanted to get out of security alarms and concentrate on other business interests, he said.

He said the two family-owned businesses chose to sell to Guardian because “they decided that a family-run business with that same feel for their customers was important to them. We displayed the touch that they wanted.”