Westec acquires Vyne, expands to dominate QSR market

DALLAS--Westec Intelligent Surveillance, a provider of remote video monitoring services based here, announced May 4 the acquisition of Atlanta-based Vyne Industries, a video surveillance equipment supplier focused on the quick service restaurant, or QSR, market. The acquisition marks another victory for Westec which received $20 million in growth funding in February from Argonaut Private Equity and Egis Capital Partners (search "Westec secures $20m" at www.securitysystemsnews.com).

Westec will now be the only nationally approved surveillance vendor serving both Burger King and McDonald's, among several other leading QSR brands. The acquisition gives Westec additional capabilities to serve QSRs owned and operated by franchisees, and complements Westec's strength of serving corporate locations for leading brands including Jack in the Box, Dairy Queen, Chick-fil-A, and Hardee's.

Westec president and CEO Kelby Hagar said the acquisition benefits both Westec and existing Vyne customers. "Vyne was one of the leaders in the quick service restaurant space for video systems, and we provide for a large number of customers for that space as well, so by combining the two organizations, we've become the leader for providing interactive video systems and services to quick service restaurants," Hagar said. "We are now the preferred provider ... Now we can provide a fuller suite of services to the existing Vyne customer base. We can provide interactive services including video verification services, voice down services, and video escorts."

Voice down is a two-way voice capability that allows Westec monitoring employees to interact with potential troublemakers at monitored locations in order to proactively preclude the need for police dispatch. "You may have a group of kids that goes into a Burger King and takes over the dining area and doesn't buy anything. They're local to the neighborhood, and so the employees don't want to get involved," Hagar said. "They notify us and we voice down and say 'You, the kid in the New York Yankees hat without any food in front of him. If you don't remove yourself from the location, we're going to notify the authorities' ... we get very, very quick response times from the authorities, but much more importantly than that, we eliminate about 90 percent of those cases without having to notify the police at all."