Safe Systems acquires, adds new office

LOUISVILLE, Colo.—Safe Systems, based here, opened a new satellite office and made two acquisitions in 2012. In 2013, the company plans to acquire again as well as grow organically—all part of a multi-year growth strategy.

“It's all part of our plan to become the premier security company in Colorado,” sales manager Tim Watson told Security Systems News.

The company, which already bills itself as Colorado's largest, independently owned, UL-listed alarm company, closed out 2012 with about $420,000 in RMR, up from $350,000 in 2011. Revenues in 2011 were more than $6 million, and Watson and company President Larry Halpern said they climbed to about $8 million in 2012.

“Our growth is phenomenal,” Halpern told SSN.

He attributes the success of the company, which he founded in 1982, to such factors as a “phenomenal executive team” and an outstanding staff. The company has 65 employees.

“Our people are on the ball,” he said. “They know what they're doing � and even with the economy being tight, we've continued to grow year after year.”

In December, Safe Systems, a Honeywell First Alert Professional dealer whose business is about 50 percent residential, announced the acquisition of Colorado Telemetry Systems, of Golden, Colo., and Sunair Security Services, based in Aurora, Colo. Both companies are located in Safe System's metropolitan Denver service area.

Halpern said the owners of the companies were ready to retire and the companies “were right in our footprint and they were good quality accounts.”

The approximately 1,400 accounts acquired from the companies were a mix of residential and commercial, Halpern and Watson said.

The company opened a new office in Colorado Springs in 2012.

That office opened as the result of Safe Systems' acquisition of D-Tech Alarm Specialist in Pueblo, Colo., in 2011, Watson explained. The acquisition expanded the company into southern Colorado, including Colorado Springs.

“It opened up the Colorado Springs market for us, so we've been growing that consistently ever since—to the point where we felt it was time to invest in additional infrastructure down there to handle the growth,” Watson said.

Acquiring D-Tech was also the first step in the company's multi-year acquisition strategy. “We're really actively looking for acquisitions now,” Halpern said. “Up to this point, except for the D-Tech acquisition, our acquisitions had been primarily in the Denver market, and now we're trying to fill in the space between Pueblo and Denver with an acquisition in the Colorado Springs area.”

He estimated Safe Systems could make as many as three acquisitions in 2013, depending on what's available.