Vanderbilt Industries to acquire Siemen's Security Products

FRANKFURT, Germany—Security systems provider Vanderbilt Industries has entered into an agreement to acquire Siemen's Security Products business, part of Siemen's Building Technologies Division.

Joseph J. Grillo will be managing director of the new business, renamed Vanderbilt International, based in the new operational headquarters here, he told Security Systems News.

Some 350 Siemen's Security Products employees based in Germany, Ireland, Sweden and France are expected to make an easy transition with the acquisition, Grillo said.

The acquiring of Siemen's Security Products, which didn't have a presence in the U.S. market, he said, will build on Vanderbilt's similar business model in Europe “for a combined footprint.”

“We'll still be selling through integrator and installer channels,” he said.

“Vanderbilt saw an opportunity to expand its product offering and geographic market coverage. The addition of SP represents significant value potential with its established installed base of customers and loyal resellers. The market trend is for integrated security management systems and more open solutions from trusted suppliers. SP clearly provides a vehicle to offer these alarm solutions to a broader customer base,” Grillo said.

The European market has substantially the same security systems needs as the U.S., he said. The multilingual aspect of customer service might be the only difference, he said.

Grillo declined to discuss financial terms. The deal's closing is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

The acquisition will increase Vanderbilt's market position in the European market and complements Vanderbilt's business portfolio as a leading supplier with widely recognized brands and long-term relationships with top customers, Grillo said.

Siemen's Security Products consists of access control, intrusion alarm and video surveillance products. The acquisition includes access control brands such as Bewator and Cotag and intrusion alarm brands such as Alarmcom and Europlex.

“We're not acquiring the Siemen's brand, but we will certainly focus on those well-established brand names like Bewator and Alarmcom that were predecessors to even Siemen's buying them,” he said.

Vanderbilt is a subsidiary of ACRE LLC, which acquired the company from Ingersoll Rand in 2012. It designs, manufactures and distributes access control systems, SMS systems and enterprise video solutions.

Throughout his 30-year career in the security industry, Grillo has worked for Kidde Automated Systems, NCS, Security Specialists, HID Corporation and Assa Abloy in a variety of sales and top executive roles. He co-founded ACRE in 2012 as a platform to initiate acquisitions in the electronic security industry, with a special focus on access control. ACRE acquired the Schlage SMS business from Ingersoll Rand in September 2012 and then completed the acquisition of Mercury Security in May 2013. He also has served as president and board member of SIA.