JACKSON, Mich. -An alarm company bought by a beer distributor
more than three years ago is today boasting more than 20 locations and plans to
build a four-story addition at its headquarters in the next few
years.
For Comtronics, the growth comes from the financial backing of
parent company Walker Capital Corp. and the vision to open alarm stores
throughout Michigan.
The latest location, added in Adrian, Mich. in November, marked
store number 21 for the alarm company that also sells cellular telephones and
uses that business to grow in the security market.
“People come up and buy a phone and the next thing we’re doing
is giving them a cut sheet on all our other products,” said John Campau,
president and chief executive officer of Comtronics.
Three more stores are planned for Comtronics in the Central
Michigan area in the first six months of this year, all part of an aggressive
growth plan that includes the possible acquisition of a southeastern Michigan
alarm company in the near future. Comtronics has already expanded its central
station, a $500,000 project that featured software upgrades and the addition of
monitoring workstations.
“We’ve got a natural business plan to expand to about 40
locations and that gives us the opportunity to expand our security division,”
said Philip F. Campau, Sr., chairman of Comtronics and company founder. “The
security market really is where our core business is today.”
Though security accounts for 65 percent of its business today,
Comtronics got its start in 1958 as a communications company. It first provided
land / mobile communication equipment used by the police and fire department,
said Philip F. Campau Sr.
“Security works because it all falls within the same grouping,
communications and electronics,” he said. “It all gels together.”
Comtronics is now taking its security expertise to the
financial security market. Already the company is providing security services
for 600 banks, installing the likes of CCTV and access control
systems.
And thanks to its growing business, Comtronics will embark on a
$3 to $4 million expansion of its headquarters in two to four years, a project
expected to add 50 employees to the company’s current 135-person workforce. The
addition will feature a 3,000 square foot showroom for both the security and
cellular telephone business.
Reprinted with permission from Security Systems
News
Copyright January 2003
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