Another acquisition puts the 'international' in Andrews International

LOS ANGELES—Andrews International on Oct. 22 entered into an agreement to acquire Verasys LLC, a Miami-based consulting firm focused on global risk mitigation, investigations and uniformed security services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Randy Andrews, CEO of Andrews International, said that Verasys aligned well with Andrews International's focus as a full-service provider, offering consulting and investigative services in addition to its uniformed guard services.

The deal will strengthen Andrews' presence in the North American market, specifically in the Florida market where Verasys had a significant footprint, but the deal will also continue Andrews' push into the international market with the addition of an office in Bogota, Colombia.

“Verasys has done a lot of work in South America and will help grow our international market,” said Andrews. In June, Andrews acquired the U.S. and Mexico guarding operations of Garda World Security Corp. for $44.25 million. “With the Garda acquisition we picked up sub-operations in Mexico and we feel strongly that the international market is a good market to move into,” said Andrews. 

However, expanding internationally is not without heightened concerns. “The challenge is that there's a higher risk involved in Mexico with kidnapping and there's a higher risk in Columbia as well, but they've come a long way and stabilized and we feel it's a very strong market,” he said.

Andrews said the company will continue to focus on acquisitions as a means to increase market share, both in North America and internationally. The company is currently in the process of acquiring a company in Brazil as well, he said. Andrews said there is no shortage of companies to consider for acquisition. “There's quite a few companies available with the financial crisis, but we're extremely selective,” he said. “We look at a great deal of companies before we decided to acquire Verasys, they've got to fit into our capabilities and expand our footprint and it has to be a top-quality company–we're not just acquiring for volume or revenue.”

And while Andrews International will continue to grow through acquisition, Andrews said that the company continues to experience a significant amount of organic growth as well.