Kaba acquires Keyscan

WHITBY, Ontario—The Nov. 3 acquisition of Keyscan by Kaba Holding AG, will bring complementary access control products and new sales channels to both companies, executives told Security Systems News.

Mark Allen, business development for Kaba Access and Data Systems Americas, said Keyscan's network access control offering will fill “a hole in our product portfolio.”

Keyscan's owners “felt that Kaba was the right place for Keyscan to land to continue to build what they've developed over the years,” Allen added.

Terms of the deal were not released.

Based in Rumlang, Switzerland, Kaba is a provider of access management solutions, high security locks, keys, physical access systems, enterprise data and time recording systems, and hotel access systems.

In business for 150 years, it has 9,000 employees and revenue of more than $1 billion. In North America, Kaba has facilities in Montreal, Madison Heights, Mich., Lexington, Ky., Winston-Salem, N.C., and Miramar, Fla.

Founded 25 years ago by John Dyall and Michael Cartier, Keyscan is a privately held company with 65 employees and 2014 revenues of $18.6 million.

Keyscan will become part of Kaba's ADS Americas Group. It will retain the Keyscan brand name and will continue to be based here. All Keyscan employees will stay on; Dyall and Cartier will stay on board through the transition.

Besides its headquarters here, Keyscan has regional sales managers located throughout the Americas.

Steve Dentinger, Keyscan director of sales and marketing said the company's “go-to-market and channel strategy will stay the same.” He added that Kaba will bring a “depth of resources from a manufacturing and engineering standpoint. … We'll be able to capitalize on [that know-how] and vice versa.”