SecurTek acquires 7,500 accounts in Ontario, expands footprint

AURORA, Ontario—SecurTek on Aug. 12 announced it had acquired Maximum Monitoring Services, based here. The acquisition brings 7,500 new mostly commercial accounts to SecurTek, and further expands the company's footprint in Ontario. The acquisition brings the company's number of monitored accounts north of 70,000.

The growth is part of a continuing trend for the company, according to SecurTek president Barry Rogers. “We just celebrated our 10th anniversary last year and we've been growing from a zero account base to where we're at today … We're in growth mode and we're a strong company that looks for strong partners with strong, independent businesses who can sell and install and service customers,” Rogers said. “We're working with probably 80 dealers across the country right now. We've got a large dealer base and will continue to look for growth.” SecurTek's primary monitoring center is in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and in 2000 the company acquired Metropol Emergency Response Centre (MERC), a Winnipeg, Manitoba-based security and monitoring services company that serves customers throughout Western Canada.

Rogers said the transition would be invisible to current Maximum accounts and would strengthen SecurTek's standing in the region. “This really strengthens our presence in Ontario with the retail customer base and the wholesale customers that we'll be monitoring,” Rogers said. “The customers will become SecurTek customers, but we're continuing to run the center in Aurora and it will continue to be run by the same staff, who are all now SecurTek employees. What this does is offer the ability to add a number of new products and services to these new customers.” Some of the new offerings include medical alert monitoring, a diverse portfolio of video services, and home automation.

SecurTek GM of marketing and dealer relations Leanne Woodhouse said it had been a busy year so far and that the hope was to continue the pace. “The acquisition was a big project, but we're looking to grow and add more to our network,” Woodhouse said. “We've seen some good interest and growth in video monitoring. We received our CSAA Five Diamond certification this year. We had a successful dealer conference in Victoria in the spring and sales have been solid. The year has definitely flown by so far.”