News
GVI Security shuts down operations

The security products distributor, based in Carrollton, Tex., closed its doors Aug, 26.

Last December, GVI announced it would no longer be selling and supporting Samsung security products, ending an 11-year partnership. The break came a little more than a year after Samsung Electronics sold its CCTV business to a subsidiary, Samsung Techwin (STA).

In March of this year, GVI formed a partnership with LG Security to represent its video surveillance products in Canada, the U.S and Mexico, marking LG’s introduction into the North American market.

But LG sales failed to meet investors’ expectations and investors withdrew their resources, according to a recent report in SecurityInfoWatch.com

Sources told the online magazine that it began when one bank suddenly decided to pull out. Forced to find a large sum of money quickly, other investors followed.

“GVI could not make the transition after the Samsung demise,” CEO Steve Walin said in the interview.

At the time, Walin said that after the merger of Samsung’s two security divisions, GVI had tried to continue working with STA but the new situation was creating too much conflict and was not working effectively for its customers.

Phone calls placed to GVI by SP&T News were not returned.

Frank Filice, CEO and president of Anacon Solutions, said GVI had good employees, who represented the industry well. The company also set a standard for customer service.

“It is sad day when any manufacturer goes out of business. And GVI was probably the benchmark on how to provide customer service. They were one of the best that I’ve seen,” he said.

In addition to coming into a saturated market, he added, LG was not prepared to enter the North American security market. However, he also expects that GVI staff will regroup and find another solution to distributing the LG brand.

GVI operated in North and South America and had offices in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Columbia.