PHILADELPHIA--In an effort to bolster its presence in Texas and in the commercial real estate market, national guarding firm Day & Zimmerman has acquired the Dallas branch of Admiral Security Services. It will merge with D&Z's current Dallas office, bringing 85 employees, including district manager Nancy Montgomery, who will continue to lead the office.

Though Admiral's parent company, Red Coats, has an installation business and a UL-listed central station called Datawatch Systems, "this is 100 percent guarding," said Michael Cooley, D&Z regional vice president. Admiral's guards, too, are the kind D&Z looks for. "In the high-rise commercial real estate market," said John Sacht, D&Z president, "it's the delivery of the service itself ... there's a big customer-service element that's important to the market. That's one thing we know we can provide."

Emphasizing that Datawatch and Admiral operate completely separately, John Arick, chief operation officer for Red Coats, said, "We sold the Dallas division of Admiral simply because the timing and the economics were right."

D&Z also has a larger Houston office and Cooley said Texas is an attractive market where it needed more density, as it expands its national footprint, while Admiral is more of an East Coast company, with offices in Florida, Virginia and Maryland. D&Z now has 20 U.S. offices and 3,100 U.S. employees as part of a $2.2 billion family of companies.

Sacht said D&Z is unlikely to leverage any installation company relationships that Admiral had built up, instead taking advantage of a sister business unit, the Atlantic Group, which installs security systems out of a Tulsa, Okla. office.