Alarm Tech grows biz by adding suppression division
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Thu October 16, 2008
READING, Pa.--Alarm Tech Data here has "significantly increased" its business as the result of adding a suppression division.
"We're trying to make it easier for end users," said Richard Fix, vice president of Alarm Tech. "We do a lot of commercial fire. Rather than have the maintenance guy call one guy to inspect the [fire alarm system] and one guy to inspect the sprinkler system, he can call Alarm Tech and we do everything. He doesn't have to remember who does what."
About one year ago, Fix added one extinguisher technician and became an authorized Pyrochem (a division of Ansul) dealer. Today, he has three new trucks on the road and five new employees dedicated to the suppression division.
Alarm Tech has been a fire and security integrator and Notifier dealer for eight years. It now installs kitchen suppression and fire extinguishers. It does not install sprinklers, but inspects all of the above.
Fix said he's Pyrochem's fifth largest dealer. "The business has really blossomed," he said.
On the security side, "things have slowed down quite a bit, but the fire side is still growing," Fix said. Competition has increased on the fire side, he said. "You see clients who used to say, 'Go ahead and do that,' who now sit down and analyze what they need to do right away [and what can wait]."
Still, as the result of growth on the fire side, Fix expects to double his business in the next year.
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