ASG Security, Beltsville, Md., finalized the acquisition of TnT Security Services LLC of Tulsa, Okla., this week. In keeping with its approach to grow as a “super regional player,” which Joe Nuccio, president and CEO of ASG, told SDM has been the strategy since inception; this acquisition will bring ASG to Oklahoma for the first time.

Part of ASG’s ongoing strategy is to acquire businesses which operate in regions contiguous to its existing branches. TnT’s two locations in Tulsa and Oklahoma City have ASG’s five Texas branches for neighbors. “Oklahoma is a nice market for us — kind of a tertiary market — with a nice customer base,” Nuccio noted.

This acquisition adds 15,000 monitored accounts, of which roughly 80 percent are residential and 20 percent are commercial customers, to ASG’s 125,000. That is a significant footprint for the company to expand its presence in the Southwest United States market, Nuccio said, and going forward, ASG will invest in strong residential growth as well as an overhaul of the commercial portion of the business.

“With ASG being a very strong commercial security company, we will parlay our experience to help round out and add commercial and government sectors into those markets, and support them through our corporate staff,” said Bob Ryan, senior vice president of sales and marketing, ASG.

Nuccio added that ASG looks at a lot of companies for potential acquisitions, but TnT presented a “perfect fit.” He continued, “I compare TnT to Southwest Airlines — the Southwest Airlines of the security industry. They’re very structured, very organized, and use the same alarm panel, and same strategy in servicing customers [as ASG]. For us, that’s the platform to add managed services to those resources and continue to build a commercial platform. We feel pretty comfortable we can double the size of the company in the next three to five years,” Nuccio said.

While TnT’s owner has retired, ASG will retain the company’s employees as they have done, historically, with other acquisitions. “It’s a new region for us. We want their people,” Nuccio pointed out. “We want to be able to continue to grow that region. They have an outstanding employee base. There is potential for us to come in and continue the legacy and continue to build it even more. There are a lot of opportunities for existing employees today.”

Looking into 2011, Nuccio projected that the company will continue in its course to “add value and tuck in acquisitions,” naming Atlanta and South Carolina as possible areas for ASG to expand into. “We look all over for what makes sense to us,” he said. “There’re lots of opportunities out there. We are prepared to move forward when we see them."