Guardian of Mich. picks up accounts to expand reach

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.--Guardian Alarm Company of Michigan, Inc. bought 1,600 monitoring contracts from Alarm Central, Inc. of Chesterfield, Mich., in late June for an undisclosed purchase price. For Guardian Alarm, a full-service installation and monitoring firm that serves more than 75,000 customers throughout Michigan, the added accounts expand its customer concentration in the eastern part of the state. "We liked Alarm Central because it is a lot like Guardian, but on a smaller scale," said Karen Majeske, general manager at the company. As a family-owned and -operated company, "It had a real strong customer service background," which is the same philosophy that Guardian uses. Majeske knows well Tricia Sommers, the owner of Alarm Central, as both are board members of the Burglar and Fire Alarm Association of Michigan. After shedding the alarm accounts, Sommers said that Alarm Central plans to focus on the company's other enterprise, an industrial property contracting business. Sommers said she would continue to be director of the alarm association's board. The transition of accounts and installation crew went smoothly, recalled Majeske. "They had an outside monitoring company," she said. "We have already converted the accounts to our monitoring facility." With offices dotted throughout Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario, Canada, Guardian plans to make more acquisitions. However, acquiring companies is not new for Guardian, which has scooped up sizable companies through the years. More recently, "there have been a lot of smaller [companies], that have contacted us, because we are local in the area," Majeske said. "We are always in a growth mode," she said. "We will go where our customers are."