Armstrong's announces new dealer acquisition program, expands

TORONTO--At the Security Canada show here, Armstrong's Communication on Oct. 22 announced a financing program to help its dealers acquire new accounts. According to Armstrong's general manager Dan Small, the Financial Acquisition Support Team (FAST) will help Armstrong's dealers grow by providing financial assistance to those who want to expand through account purchases, but who lack the money to do so. "Our biggest struggle is that our dealers are getting older, and they're looking to sell," Small said. "We're strictly third party. We don't purchase accounts. We don't have installers or technicians or anything like that. So we've put together FAST, where we will try and get the financing or help a dealer who wants to buy another dealer. So if I've got a guy who wants to sell, and he says, 'Dan, will you buy me?' I say, 'No, no, but let me see if I can find one of our other dealers who would like to buy you in your area.' And we try and provide the financing." Small said it is important to keep the smaller, independent dealers growing. "It's getting harder, because there are less and less monitoring stations. I'd say there's probably a third less monitoring stations now than there were 10 years ago in Canada," Small said. Armstrong's dealer Chris Pyne, owner/operator of HiTech Security, likes FAST. "I am very impressed with the program," Pyne said. "Having this capability to offer financial help also gives me the incentive that, down the road, when I'm ready to retire, they'll be able to offer my company to other people in the area with a nice, easy transition period." Further, said Pyne, "[FAST] gives you another opportunity to do local investing and keep it all local." FAST is just part of Armstrong's expansion efforts over the last year: "We're going big and expanding across Canada. We hired a very well known Western Canada business development director, Kim Schellenberg. She's been working hard all this year expanding our territories across Canada."