Lowitt acquires on Long Island

HICKSVILLE, N.Y.--Lowitt Alarms & Security Systems has added to its South Shore customer base with the acquisition of CL&J Alarms, Andrew Lowitt, vice president of marketing, told Security Systems News on Jan. 7. The acquisition, which closed in 2008, brought 2,000 accounts and "just under $50,000 in RMR," Lowitt said. Terms of the deal were not released. "It definitely gave us a boost in RMR in 2008, going into 2009," he added. In business since 1969, Lowitt serves commercial and residential customers on Long Island. It monitors its own accounts and also has a wholesale monitoring business. Lowitt has 100 employees, more than 8,500 monitored accounts and more than $300,000 in RMR. CL&J Alarm was based in Hewlett, N.Y., on the South Shore of Long Island about 12 miles from here. "We had clients down there already, now we have more," said Lowitt. Former CL&J owner Roberta Smith sold the business because she was retiring and moving out of state. Five of her former employees, most of whom are technicians, have joined Lowitt Alarms. Lowitt said his company "looks forward to continuing our acquisition strategy in 2009." Prime candidates, he said, are "our wholesale dealers," like CL&J. "For dealers who want to retire and who don't want to reprogram accounts [that are already] monitored here," selling their business to Lowitt is a good deal for both parties, he said. At the time of the acquisition, Lowitt went paperless, implementing a new document scanning system. "This was the first batch of accounts where all the documents were completely scanned," Lowitt said. The new system will improve customer service, he said.