SimplexGrinnell: 'Our business will thrive' with Tyco split

LAS VEGAS—At the National Fire Protection Association's annual Conference & Expo, held here in June, SimplexGrinnell President Bob Chauvin said Tyco International's pending split into three publicly traded companies on Oct. 1 will benefit SimplexGrinnell.

The new companies spun off from Tyco will be the ADT North America residential security business, Tyco Fire and Security, and Flow Control.

SimplexGrinnell, a Tyco International company based in Boca Raton, Fla., will be part of Tyco Fire and Security, “a global, mostly commercially-focused fire and security company,” Chauvin said.

“I think for us and for the life safety industry it means some very positive things,” Chauvin said. “One is that we'll be the only pure-play company that is singularly focused on the commercial fire and security business globally. Many play there, but I like to call it the privilege-of-focus opportunity: We have the opportunity to uniquely focus just in the life safety and security business.”

Secondly, he said, “SimplexGrinnell will be a significant part of this new company,” which he said is expected to do about $10 billion in sales, have almost 70,000 employees in about 1,200 locations and serve about 100 countries.

Chauvin said he was excited and predicted that “our business will thrive with the change.”

SimplexGrinnell at the show also was touting its e-services platform, which it described as an “advanced suite of integrated Web-based technologies that can provide more value to customers through improved efficiency, added productivity and lower life-cycle costs.”

The NFPA show drew more than 4,000 attendees and more than 300 exhibitors, said Lorraine Carli, VP of communications for NFPA. She said every time the show is held in Las Vegas, “it's always a big draw.”