The Fourth of July holiday typically finds most of us munching barbeque and watching fireworks. That wasn’t the case for Jeannette Barth last summer. As Design Manager for Summit Fire & Security LLC, Barth and her colleagues were busy moving into their company’s new digs on Heritage Commerce Court in Wake Forest.
“We moved here over the Fourth of July weekend,” recalls Barth of the firm’s relocation into its 25,000-sq.-ft. building from its prior home in north Raleigh. “We had grown substantially and needed additional space,” she says. “It’s working out great.”
From its new base in Wake Forest, Summit Fire & Security services a broad North Carolina territory that extends across the Triangle westward to Greensboro and as far east as Wilmington. The company provides fire prevention and suppression systems for residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Summit has numerous locations around the country, providing a one-stop-shop of expertise and solutions to a wide range of large, mid-sized, and small accounts. “We do a mix of everything,” says Barth, a Wisconsin native who arrived in the Triangle in 2008. Driving the firm’s future growth, she says, is entry into the market of servicing fire extinguishers.
Summit Fire & Security’s Wake Forest location is one of two locations the company maintains in North Carolina; it also has operations in Charlotte. “We love the area,” Barth says of her team’s impressions of Wake Forest during its initial year of operations here. “There are a lot more things to do,” she says. Among her team’s top amenities is the vibrant restaurant scene. She says nearby Culver’s is a popular spot for lunch, while Fortnight Brewing, just half a mile away from the office, is the destination of choice for her colleagues after work. Several of the company’s 75 employees, in fact, have personally relocated to Wake Forest after getting to know the community.
Barth hopes she and her company will eventually have time to get more active in Wake Forest’s business scene. Other than joining the Chamber, there’s been little time to explore engagement opportunities due to the non-stop pace of ramping up their new operations and meeting surging customer demand. “The focus has been on keeping up with construction,” she says.
What’s behind Summit Fire & Security’s impressive expansion? “It’s all about economic growth,” Barth explains. “As long as developers are developing and construction companies are building, we’ll keep growing.”
Summit Fire & Security employs workers with a broad spectrum of skills – from pipefitters and inspectors to CAD operators, engineering technicians, and management staff. “We need a very wide variety of people,” Barth says. Among preferred avenues for recruiting new employees, the company works closely with Heritage High School in identifying potential talent. Summit participates in the school’s Student Hands-on Experience Day (“SHED”), for example, in building relationships with young people interested in employment after graduation. “When students turn 18, we can hire them,” she says. Summit provides specialized skills-building in-house training. “Our field personnel go through an extensive training program,” Barth says.
Summit Fire & Security is part of SPF Holding, Inc, known as “Summit Companies,” a national portfolio of related businesses providing high-quality fire and life safety services. The Minnesota corporation is owned jointly by management along with the private equity firm CI Capital Partners LLC (formerly Caxton-Iseman Capital). Based in New York City, CI Capital specializes in middle-market companies and has approximately $2 billion in assets under management.
“Summit Fire & Security brings a powerful national scale and scope to Wake Forest’s business community, but also conveys a compelling personal touch,” says Jason Cannon, President of the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership (WFBIP). “Many companies set out with that objective in mind for their corporate culture, but Summit – through its unique structure and local management – actually accomplishes it. It’s the ideal fit for Wake Forest’s corporate community, and we’re encouraged by their trajectory for continued success,” Cannon says.
