Red Hawk makes two acquisitions

BOCA RATON, Fla.—Red Hawk Fire & Security LLC, a leader in fire, life safety and electronic security services based here, acquired two companies within a week, expanding its geographic footprint and capabilities in key areas of Florida and the mid-Atlantic region. Terms of both transactions were not disclosed.

On Jan. 31, Red Hawk acquired Integrated Systems of Florida, strengthening the company's existing fire, life safety and integrated security services operations in Central and North Florida.

“For acquisitions we look at: does it add geographic footprint, does it bring additional capabilities, does it give us additional density in an underserved market—and this really was one where we needed the geographic coverage for some of our larger national account customers in the Orlando, Tampa and Tallahassee,” Red Hawk CEO and president Michael McWilliams told Security Systems News. “We have gotten to know the ISOF brand and reputation well over the last few years and we are excited to be adding such a strong, well respected team to our company.”

ISOF president Walter Wiseman said in the announcement that Red Hawk “is large enough to bring needed resources and expertise to bear for the complex or sophisticated customer projects, yet nimble and flexible enough to deliver local knowledge that complements and enhances the services we offer to clients.”

In addition, Red Hawk announced on Feb. 6 the purchase of Alarm Tech Solutions (ATS), a fire and life safety integrator in the Baltimore, Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. areas.

“ATS has built a really strong reputation over the past 20 years in that mid-Atlantic region, and it gives us some additional density in some underserved market and an expansion of some existing capabilities,” said McWillams. “A key piece of us doing this deal was that ATS president and CEO Marty Smith would join us and run our entire mid-Atlantic operation as our new regional manager.”

This is Red Hawk's third acquisition in the last 12 months, and internally the company “still has a lot to do in integrating these acquisitions,” said McWilliams. “But we have a really healthy pipeline of attractive M&A candidates that we are looking at and if there is a company that is a good fit we will take a look.”

McWilliams said these acquisitions, combined with strong organic growth, have propelled the company over the past year. “We anticipate this year to have even bigger organic growth year and if add the two acquisitions we made we anticipate total growth somewhere in the area of 15-20 percent this year, easily.”

Red Hawk was formed as an independent, unified fire and electronic security services brand with a national footprint to serve commercial customers after the acquisition by a Comvest Partners sponsored private investment fund of the U.S. fire and security operations of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in April of 2012. Since then, Red Hawk has focused efforts on successfully growing its commercial client base nationally in the government, healthcare and education markets.