Minuteman grows to eight companies, emphasizing high-performance culture and strategic synergies

ANDOVER, Mass.—Minuteman Security & Life Safety recently acquired two integrators, Shanix Technology and Split Pine Technologies, with a focus on expanding its high-performance, high-growth culture. 

These latest acquisitions bring the total number of companies in Minuteman’s portfolio to eight.  

“It really comes down to, do they understand what we're trying to achieve?” said Ron Oetjen, corporate president for Minuteman. “Is this what they want for themselves and their employees. This is a high-performance, high-growth organization. It's very fast-paced with high expectations, so you want to find companies and owners that are interested in wanting to provide opportunities for their employees to grow. You have to be okay with the fact that things are going to change because there’s going to be more responsibility.”  

Oetjen cited geographical density as another key factor in Minuteman’s growth strategy. 

Minuteman’s acquisition of Cranston, R.I.-based security and A/V technology integrator Shanix Technology, for example, helped the company address a significant gap in coverage in the Northeast, he said. 

“Rhode Island was always one of those states with different regulations, different licensure,” he said. “It was a very hard state to do business in unless you're located there and had a significant presence there. It really came about because of a strategic (geographical) need on our part, as well as Shanix sharing the same solution-oriented values as Minuteman.” 

As these acquisitions strengthen Minuteman’s position in the market, Oetjen pointed out that creating customer and product line synergies is also going to propel the integrator to the next level.  

“When we look at companies, we're looking to increase our position with our primary vendors,” he said. “If there's no synergy in product lines, meaning they sell completely different stuff than we sell, it's hard to make that work because we've invested so much effort in our relationships with the vendors. We consider that most of the time when we do an acquisition - it's actually strengthening our position with our primary vendors.”  

Oetjen’s vision for Minuteman going forward is to create a high-performance company that consistently outperforms industry metrics and does it with high morale, which leads to low attrition from employees.  

“When people are proud of what they've done and their customers are happy, that leads to happy employees if the company is taking care of them,” he said. “That's our strategy – to really take care of our employees who take care of our customers.”