Protection 1 acquires more than 25 key national accounts in buy

ROMEOVILLE, Ill.—Protection 1, which said this fall it would increase “exponentially” its national accounts business, today announced it has acquired the national account client base of Sting Alarm, a regional security company based in Las Vegas.

“We acquired 25 to 35 key national account customers, some large food distributors, high-end retail and logistics companies, some very prominent names,” Jamie Haenggi, chief marketing officer for Protection 1, told Security Systems News.

“All in all, we acquired more than 2,500 actual sites, and we will take over the monitoring and servicing of those accounts.”

Protection 1 did not acquire the company itself, just some of its national account clients, she said. Sting Alarm, a regional company originally based in Dallas, will continue to service and grow its residential and commercial, and national accounts business, Haenggi said.

At the ASIS show this fall, Protection 1 CEO Tim Whall said Pro 1 did about $7 million in national accounts business in 2010. He told Security Systems News that he intends to grow that business to more than $100 million within three years.

Haenggi said that acquisitions are a “viable option” for growing any part of Protection 1's businesses “if they make economic sense for the company.”

Protection 1 is not yet known as a national account provider, she said, but that's changing.

“This fall we had 12 national account managers, now we have 40,” she said. “Customers are looking for choices. When they hear we've got 65 branch locations, they're interested.”

The national accounts team is actively prospecting. “We've had more than 300 face-to-face meetings with [potential] customers within the last three months,” Haenggi said.