ADS is on the move

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--It's been a busy summer at ADS Security, with an infrastructure upgrade, a planned move to a new corporate office and continued rebranding efforts. In addition to all this, ADS' co-owner and Chief Executive Officer Mel Mahler has set his sights on capturing new business in the state of Florida. "We're working on entering Florida, likely in the Pensacola and Tallahassee region and we're working on it as we speak," Mahler said. No further details were available, but Mahler noted that the Florida market is the one piece of the Southeast missing from ADS' footprint. Mahler is also in the process of deciding between two possibilities for a new corporate office. Both are located in Nashville and each is considerably larger than the 10,000-square-foot offices the company now occupies. "The new office will be about 18,000 square feet," he said. The central station and national branch are co-located with the corporate offices. The new building will enable the customer care department to expand and give needed space to the accounting department and national branch operations. The company is also working on a $1.7-million upgrade of hardware, software and receivers in its corporate offices and monitoring station. The last upgrade was seven years ago. Steady growth at ADS necessitated these improvements. "ADS grew by 12.6 percent last year; the industry grew by 8 percent," Mahler said. With $25 million in annual revenue and a "strong cash flow," Mahler said the goal going forward is to "grow 10 percent internally annually, through our own sales and installations and to grow another 10 percent through acquisition." ADS doubled in size in the last five years and Mahler expects to double again in the next five years. The company has 57,000 accounts--60 percent commercial, 40 percent residential--and 13 branch offices in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. ADS has one branch to finish in order to complete the rebranding effort begun earlier this year. This branch, Fox Alarm in Alabama, was ADS' largest acquisition, with 15,000 accounts. The efforts are expected to be completed by year's end. "That's a lot of lawn signs," he said.