Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/40004
34 RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS www.securitysystemsnews.com SEPTEMBER 2011 Multra-Guard acquired in Virginia By Tess Nacelewicz RICHMOND, Va.—Richmond Alarm, based here, grew its foot- print into eastern Virginia with the recent acquisition of Multra- Guard, a Norfolk-based full-ser- vice security company. The acquisition by Richmond Alarm makes that company the largest locally owned provider of electronic security systems in the state, according to company president Wayne Boggs. Multra-Guard is a good fit geo- graphically for Richmond Alarm, he told Security Systems News. "We have an office in Lynch- burg, about two hours west of Richmond and Norfolk is two hours east of Richmond, so it now pretty much lets us cover the middle part of the state of Vir- ginia from one side to the other and have service offices in both locations," he said. Also, he said, Multra-Guard, which has about 3,000 accounts and a UL-listed central station, was a "nice fit" for Richmond Alarm, a family company of about 75 employees founded in 1947. "They're very similar [to Rich- mond Alarm] in their fanatical attitude towards customer ser- vice," Boggs said. Multra-Guard, whose own- ers have retired, will continue to operate under its own name, because of its strong reputation," he said. SSN SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS DEVCON Continued from page 32 announced it was rebranding, with a new logo and revamped web site. Farenhem said Devcon expected to open its 52nd branch by the end of July. The company has not set a limit on the number of branches it expects to open, he said. "We believe that the footprint we've established in the first six months of this year does give us national coverage, and from this point we will expand into markets that make sense for us," he said. Schmidt said the new facil- ity was positive not only for Devcon but for the industry as a whole. "This transaction is another example that the security space is a space that the senior debt providers look very favorably upon, and if you've got strong top-tier kind of metrics like a Devcon, then the access to capital is certain- ly there," he said. SSN GUARDIAN Continued from page 1 Guardian paid $11.5 million for Cincinnati Bell's alarm business, which included 15,000 accounts and 15 employees, Guardian president David Goldstein told Security Systems News. "We're now in Cincinnati as a player instead of as a spectator," Goldstein said. "It gives us stabil- ity and a solid footprint in south/ central Ohio. We were already in Cleveland and Toledo," he added. Guardian previously had a small presence in Cincinnati, with about 700 accounts. Cincinnati Bell planned to close its Five Diamond-certified central station and all accounts were to be moved to Guardian's central station by Aug. 1. The Cincinnati Bell team has generated 300 accounts per month on average and Goldstein expects the team to continue at that pace. The new Guardian Cin- cinnati group will operate out of a new office, located in the same building as Cincinnati Bell. Gold- stein wanted the group to be in close proximity with its former owners because of the cooperative marketing agreement between Guardian and Cincinnati Bell. Under the agreement, the Cin- cinnati Bell telemarketing team will continue to sell home secu- rity to its customers to whom it sells telephone, Internet and TV services for one year. Goldstein hopes to extend the agreement. "We're not changing anything they do or we do," Goldstein said. "We don't want to break what works. SSN