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| Customer care centers for FirstService Security, Norristown, Pa., are in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. |
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The company provided a large digital video and intrusion system for more than 1,000 locations of the Royal Bank of Canada.
“The banking industry is a little more consolidated in Canada, a little easier to get your arms around,” Brewer explains about the difference in markets.
The next largest market for FirstService Security – colleges and universities – has a lot in common with chemical plants, Brewer maintains. They both have large areas that require video surveillance and large populations that use access control systems.
Brewer founded the company in 1986 to provide security and lock service to small businesses. In 1995, four additional partners were brought in and the name changed to Security Services and Technologies (SST). “In 2004, I was asked to take a management stake in Intercon, which was owned by FirstService,” he relates.
The company’s major equipment suppliers include Bosch Security Systems, GE Security, Honeywell Security, Integral Technologies, March Networks, Panasonic Security Systems and Tyco Fire & Security. Distributors include ADI, Anixter, CDW and Security Lock Distributors.
“We can handle any size of project anywhere,” Brewer maintains. “Our approach is to be a big small company, as I would put it. Be big, but act small.”
For the future, Brewer sees additional opportunities providing central station and Web-based services to customers in the United States.