Minuteman acquires enterprise fire expert Norris

ANDOVER, Mass.—Minuteman Security Technologies Inc., a provider of enterprise security solutions, has acquired systems integrator Norris Inc., speeding company growth and broadening its enterprise fire capabilities throughout New England.

The deal adds 65 Norris employees, as well as four offices, including the company's headquarters in South Portland, Maine, and branch locations in Bangor, Maine, Lee, N.H., and Burlington, Vt.

“The total number of employees for the combined company is now more than 150,” Minuteman's CEO Joseph Lynch told Security Systems News. “Our combined revenue for the two companies is now close to $40 million and we expect to grow that to approximately $48 million projected in 2021.”

Lynch noted that this deal allows Minuteman to grow its enterprise fire business, something the company has been looking to do.

“The fire alarm side is a very important part of this deal for us, as we begin moving more into fire alarm design, installation, sales and service,” he explained. “Their Notifier product line is a enterprise-class product, so we plan on making fire a bigger part of our business and our overall offering for our clients.”

In addition to expanding the company's offerings in fire life safety, the deal also adds Vigilance, a proprietary mass notification system, to Minuteman's line of products.

“Vigilance will be migrated into our technology portfolio where we develop our own wireless mobile surveillance systems,” he said, noting that each company's software group will be merged together.

Lynch pointed out that growth on the technical side has helped to support the company's growth over the past few years.

“We are becoming a very security engineering-heavy company in all aspects of the security subsystems,” he explained. “Within the last year we have also become UL listed, 2050, and we now have NICET-level fire system engineers as part of our team now, in addition the network, security, electrical and software engineers that we already have.”

In addition to growing on the enterprise-fire side of the business, Minuteman has grown its license plate recognition (LPR) for citywide surveillance business, as well as doing more with smart city applications. The company also does a lot of work in the higher education, healthcare, transportation and department of defense spaces.

Moving forward, Lynch said he expects continued growth not only within New England, but also in Florida, where the company's presence has “expanded dramatically in just the last 14 months. We are very active on the acquisition front right now as we identify markets where we see a hole in the types of services that we provide.”