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Monitronics committed to Canada but won’t comment on rumours of sale

Following the departure of Patrick Soo from Monitronics Canada at the end of June, Monitronics vice-president of marketing Mitch Clarke says the company has moved to a broker model in Canada and has no intention of having one person dedicated to managing the business in Canada.

September 22, 2010  By  Jennifer Brown

 

Soo, who was director of operations for Canada with the Dallas-based company, had been with Monitronics Canada since the company made its entry into Canada in 2007. In June Soo said he felt it was a good time to make a change and is now working as a consultant in the industry.
 
During his time with Monitronics, Soo was responsible for growing the Monitronics dealer network in Canada and was instrumental in a partnership created with Ottawa-based Lanvac.
 
Monitronics currently has about 22 dealers in Canada. Those dealers run from Toronto to the West Coast, but the company was lacking a presence in key provinces such as Quebec and wanted to grow. Soo said the dealers in Canada will continue to be supported by the company out of Dallas.

"Patrick did a good job of building a foundation and getting Lanvac established for us but we’ve gone to having a dedicated staff person, Jonathan Black in Dallas, be the single point of contact for dealers and the sales team," says Clarke. "And by going to the broker system we think it will allow us to be more nimble. But our interest in Canada remains strong and we believe there’s lots of business to do in Canada."

Currently, Clarke says Monitronics has two brokers in Canada and they are looking for additional partnerships.

"To have one person cover an entire country was a good way to get started, but now we have a need to have more points of contact," he says.

Clarke says the company is still budgeting Canada as a growth market and will continue to partner with Lanvac for monitoring.

"We love Lanvac and think they have been a great partner for us," he says.

He would not comment on rumours that Monitronics is for sale.

"There are a ton of rumours out there but I’m not offering any comment on that front," he said.