Alliant marks its first acquisition, buys PSS

BURBANK, Calif. -Only a few months after announcing a reentrance in the security market, Tom Rankin’s company has made its first acquisition, one of many planned in the coming year. For the start up company, now known as Alliant Protection Services, the late November acquisition of Pacific Security Systems in Alameda, Calif., provides it with a foundation from which to grow. “We have a dual plan,” said Rankin, president and chief executive officer of Alliant. “The plan is to take PSS and grow it and we do that by providing them with infrastructure that up until now they have not been able to afford and some assistance on the management side. “And then we’ll be looking to acquire other companies in the Bay Area that have a similar profile,” he said. That profile involves alarm companies with good reputations, high profile customers and low attrition rates. The purchase price of PSS was not released, but Rankin said 80 percent of the company’s business is in the high-end commercial market. It employs 20 people. Linda Reschert, president and majority owner of PSS, decided to sell the business to Alliant five years after her husband Rick passed away. She said not only was the timing right, but the buyer was a perfect match. “(Tom’s) vision was so similar to what Rick and I did, it just made sense,” said Reschert. “He believes in quality service and good customer service and very good employee relations. When you’re a small company, you have very few opportunities for people.” Besides providing opportunity for PSS’s employees to move up in the company, the acquisition also provides it with the venture capital to grow. Rankin said plans call for additional sales people, technicians and installers in the future as the company grows and branches into new markets. “The financial backing is going to put some money behind us to help us move forward,” said Wendy Bosbach, office manager for PSS for the past 10 years Though PSS will be used as a springboard for Alliant to grow, Rankin does not plan to capitalize on the Alliant name just yet. “We will more than likely not change the name, only because from our standpoint today nobody knows our name and PSS has spent a lot of years building up a great reputation,” he said.