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Alarm Products Distributors - The Products You Need, The Experts You Can Count On

Anyone can claim to be an expert, but most can’t stand on four decades of experience providing products and solutions to the security industry. APD has served this industry since 1972, and we have grown and adapted as the technology has evolved. When you need an expert to count on, one with real industry experience you can rely on, APD is in your corner ready to provide the products and knowledge you need to succeed!

Securing Integrity. Protecting the Professional. The integrity of the security industry as a whole has been compromised! Many security companies today are experiencing increased pressure from online retailers and national distributors who are selling to unlicensed contractors and online resellers. At APD, we do NOT sell to unlicensed contractors, or online resellers. APD only works directly with professional security companies just like you, who are committed to our industry.

Alarm Products Distributors -- Always Protecting Dealers!!

Alarm Products Distributors History:

In 1972, there were only a few sources for security equipment. One national supplier had their main offices on the East Coast and warehouses in Chicago and Los Angeles. Most other manufacturers sold their products direct to the relatively small number of independent dealers. The problem for the independent dealer was that there was no one-stop place to buy the control and all of the other parts needed to complete a system. Ray Meyer had discovered this several years earlier when he tried to set up dealers for a small control panel manufacturing operation he had started in Princeton, Minnesota.

Some of the early suppliers were Alarm Products International, Design Control, Napco (alarm panels and tape dialers), Damon Alarm (window foil, foil blocks, foiling supplies and hold-up switches), United Security (magnetic contacts), Christy Industries (tape dialers), Union Carbide (No. 6-dry cell batteries) and Franklin Signal (digital dialers and controls). Tape dialers made up the majority of the communications sales. Alarm Products even recorded tapes for the dealers. Digital dialers were just being introduced to the market. An interesting note is there were three manufacturers of digital dialers right here in the Twin Cities, Lincoln Security, Lectro Systems and Silent Knight.

Alarm Products later opened a branch office in St. Louis. Ray would drive the 600 miles every other week to check on the branch, but it proved to be tricky to try and maintain two offices in the days before computers were available to watch the inventory and general ledger. Ray later closed the St. Louis office and installed WATS lines in Minneapolis, one of the first distributors to do so. Dealers could now call toll-free from 11 states in the upper Midwest to place their orders to be picked up or shipped. Clint Dobratz purchased the operation in 1986. In 1990, Alarm Products moved to its current location, still centrally located in the Twin Cities. Since opening here in the Midway District, we have had three building expansions, adding much needed warehouse and office space as well as an expanded training room to facilitate customer training.

2016 was a pivotal year for APD as Clint Dobratz passed the torch to his sons Brandon, Patrick and John, who are now proud owners of the company. They carry on the long tradition of providing professional security products with the utmost importance to detail and intelligent system design that you rely on. Continuing to run Alarm Products Distributors with the same mantra, Where Service Matters!!