The last three years have been a whirlwind of acquisitions and growth for Long Island/New York City stalwart Briscoe Protective Systems – thanks in large part to the vision of current CEO Alexander Schuil, who has been at the helm since 2017.
After Briscoe Protective Systems was acquired by Novidam Capital Partners in 2017, Schuil, as the new CEO, was tasked with integrating Briscoe Protective with Worldwide Security, an $8 million full-service security company that Novidam had acquired just one year previously, in 2016. In early 2018, Novidam also acquired SCAN Security, a residential and light commercial security company serving customers in the East End of Long Island and East Hampton.
“Trying to integrate several companies into one is, admittedly, stressful,” Schuil says. “When an acquisition or merger happens, loyal customers have to be reassured that they will continue to receive the same high level of customer service that they have come to trust – but with more options and services. At the same time, you are bringing together multiple work cultures to support a common goal of success.”
Prizefighting Pedigree
Founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1978 as Delco Security Systems, the company later changed its name to Briscoe Protective Systems (BPS) to honor Bert Briscoe, grandfather of Bob Williams, who was a previous owner of the company. Grandfather Bert was a prizefighting trainer who coached Lightweight World Champion Archie Moore. Bert saw doing good for others as the most important thing a person can do – and this became part of the company’s mission.
Throughout the years, BPS has developed a reputation for being a hard-working company that does excellent work. When Schuil came on as CEO in 2017, he knew that he wanted a work culture that would continue to center on relationships and delivering the highest levels of service to customers in Westchester, the five boroughs of New York City and Long Island.
Schuil sees legitimate buy-in from employees on this customer-first mentality on a daily basis, which he says has helped fuel BPS’ growth. “We don’t try to do what the really big security companies do – we focus on meeting our customers’ needs each day and making smart strategic decisions,” Schuil explains.
One of those decisions has been to implement a hybrid management structure with separate residential and commercial divisions, each with a chief operating officer who reports to Schuil. Briscoe Protective has become the brand and parent company since the acquisitions and it achieved significant growth – better than 50 percent – from 2017 to 2018. Schuil says that this growth is tied to the acquisitions, but also to solid organic growth that is rooted in tighter emphasis on recurring revenue, which was a major shift in strategy.
Relationship-Based Services
Schuil sees room for growth for smaller regional security integrators, despite the dominance of large security companies. He thinks that mergers and acquisitions by small companies can be fruitful because they can bring customers robust fire and security services and a relationship-based level of customer service that large companies cannot offer.
“Providing a personal touch and top-quality service ultimately gives you profitable results,” Schuil says. “It is the human connection that separates us from the super-sized companies.”
Schuil adds that integrating multiple businesses, each with strong brand names, is not easy, but that the nearly 200 people who work at Briscoe are all-in on the “service-first” model.
Since the acquisitions have occurred, Schuil has made sure that customer service has maintained a top priority and that Briscoe customers are still interacting with the same support and installation staff members they were before the acquisitions. Schuil wants that continuity in service and reliability to remain a calling-card for the company going forward.
The Search Fund Model
Search funds help younger entrepreneurs to raise funds from private equity investors. In the initial stage of a search fund, investors back the younger entrepreneur’s search for the right company to acquire. Once that right company is found, investors help fund the acquisition in exchange for shares in the company. The young entrepreneur takes an operating role in the acquired company in the second stage of the search fund.
In this case, Schuil was that young entrepreneur and Novidam Capital Partners was the investor. Novidam is a private equity firm that focuses on technology-enabled service companies. In addition to his CEO role at Briscoe Protective, Schuil is also a managing partner in Novidam. Schuil attended business schools in Holland and Singapore and previously worked for the U.S.-based worldwide management firm McKinsey & Company, where he learned the search fund model.
The melding of the original Briscoe Protective, Worldwide Security and SCAN Security unites many lines of business under one brand and allows the new parent Briscoe Protective brand to provide robust fire, video and burglary security service offerings to its customers. With the combination of the three companies, Briscoe has become one of the largest privately held fire and security companies in New York and currently is one of the 35 largest public and private security organizations in the United States.
As CEO, Schuil has remained focused on growing the commercial fire business, video surveillance and access control, recurring revenue, installations, and testing and monitoring service offerings. The current sales force is tasked with bringing in seven to 10-year contracts, instead of shorter-term contracts.
Schuil says that he wants to be able to hire one new sales person each month due to the growth of the business and hopes that Briscoe’s growth in the last year will draw top sales talent to the company.
Since the acquisitions, the average size of each sale has continued to climb for Briscoe as staff numbers, institutional knowledge and the company’s breadth of services have increased. In the coming year, Schuil says he hopes to forge long-term relationships with area contractors, architects and electricians. And he believes he has the team to do it. “We’ve got a great group of people here at Briscoe who want to grow the company with me,” Schuil says. “They are genuinely dedicated to our work and goals and they are excited about where we are going as a company.”
Catherine Berce is the owner and lead writer for Berce Creative, a provider of writing services including marketing communications, social media content, thought leadership articles and more. Learn more at http://bercecreative.com.
