Huronia acquires in Ontario

MIDLAND, Ontario—Huronia Alarm & Fire Security Inc., a full service security company based here, announced on May 10 the largest acquisition in its history, purchasing Peerless Security & Muskoka Fire Protection Services Limited. The deal adds 2,000 accounts to Huronia's existing base of 6,000 accounts.

“Peerless has been the largest deal we have done to date,” Rob Thorburn, Jr., Huronia's president and CEO, told Security Systems News. Both companies have a similar account demographic; 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial. The deal was finalized on March 31, Thorburn said; he declined to release financial terms of the deal.

Both companies operate ULC listed monitoring centers and Huronia's station is TMA Five Diamond. Thorburn said that Huronia will continue to operate Peerless' monitoring center as the company's first back-up central station.

Peerless' main geography covers the Muskoka, Parry Sound and Haliburton regions of Ontario, which partially overlaps with Huronia's footprint. Thorburn noted that the company has been doing work in Muskoka and Parry Sound through summer cottages owned by the company's current customers in its Midland and Collingwood locations.

Huronia has been in business for 45 years and established its Collingwood location as a result of its acquisition of BellAlarmSystems in 1998. “Our philosophy … is to be local in the community in order to provide great customer service in a reasonable response time,” Thorburn said.

The deal came about when Peerless' owner Doug Spiller approached Huronia with a potential sale of some of his accounts. “After discussion, we decided that [the sale of] the whole business would be best suited for both of us, and nine months later we had a deal,” Thorburn said. “Doug originally was looking [to] sell off the fire alarm inspection side of the business and was looking around to see who was interested. Huronia was interested in … the fire alarm, security and monitoring business.”

Thorburn said that Huronia Alarms has known Peerless for about 20 years and the companies have always respected each other. Huronia is maintaining Peerless' current staff and leadership as well as its facility. “We're really looking forward to working with the staff and employees at Peerless, as well as serving their clientele,” he said.

Peerless Security & Muskoka Fire Protection Services was founded in 1986.