ASG acquires Accutech Systems

BELTSVILLE, Md.--Making good on his autumn prediction that ASG Security would be at $2.5 million in RMR by year's end, ASG chief executive Joe Nuccio on Dec. 26 announced the acquisition of integrator Accutech Systems of Rockville, Md. "Our plan to grow the organization and leverage our current facilities and infrastructure in the Washington-Baltimore market came together with this acquisition," Nuccio said. ASG is a super-regional security company with operations in the Mid-Atlantic region and Texas. Accutech brings with it $200,000 in RMR, $5 million in annual installation revenue and 900 customers. Former owner Tim Miller and all 45 Accutech employees will stay on. Miller will assume the role of vice president of government and commercial sales. Les Gold and Tony Adler at Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp represented Accutech in the deal. Accutech's business is 90 percent commercial and the company specializes in government work. Adding a systems integrator with a heavy government emphasis complements the "existing ASG branch in Washington-Baltimore, which does $290,000 in RMR and is 60 percent commercial," Nuccio said. Miller founded Accutech Systems in 1987. Government work accounts for more than 40 percent of Accutech's current business. Miller said he's recently had to turn away jobs, and teaming up with ASG will mean more business for the new entity. Accutech Systems will continue to operate under this name and will remain at its current Rockville location for the immediate future, Nuccio said. While ASG does quite a bit of municipal government work in all regions, said Bob Ryan, ASG vice president of sales and marketing, its federal government work is concentrated in South Texas. ASG's McAllen, Texas, subsidiary Argus Security Systems, is "the dominant player in the Rio Grande. We do a lot of border patrol ... GSA and immigration department work and we have a pretty robust list of blue chip accounts down there." Compared to working in a commercial environment, the skill set necessary for working in the government space is "not much different," said Les Gold. "Security is security ... but dealing with government regulations and contractor [requirements] is a special skill. If you don't have it, it's very hard to break in." Accutech has a GSA schedule, but ASG will still have to qualify for a GSA schedule, he noted. However, with help from Accutech's management, ASG will have a much easier time qualifying, Gold predicted.