BusinessTN

Founded 21 years ago to serve the shopping center industry, SMS Holdings has grown from two people and two shopping malls to 12,000 employees at more than 500 locations in 44 states and the District of Columbia. And those 500 locations represent more than just shopping malls. Today, SMS, which has six subsidiaries, provides facility management, transportation support and security services to several other industries, including aviation, health care, hospitality, and sports and leisure.

"We provide services to our customers that allow them to focus on their core business," says Keith Wolken, chairman of SMS.

In July 2008, SMS expanded its reach and scope of services with two acquisitions. While looking for an acquisition that would grow the company's security business, SMS learned of Brantley Services in Louisville, Ky. Though at the time, Brantley's security business was the only piece of the company for sale, the SMS team that met with Brantley soon discovered another business piece of great interest -- a company known as Block by Block that provides security, cleaning and customer service personnel for Business Improvement Districts.

"We came away from that meeting as much or more excited about Block by Block as we were about the Brantley security piece that was originally for sale," Wolken says. "After some discussions back and forth, they decided to look at a deal that would include us purchasing the Block by Block piece [as well as Brantley security]."

SMS incorporated both businesses into its fold, allowing the management teams (which Wolken says were strong in both instances) to focus on growing their respective businesses while SMS took care of the human resources, risk management, accounts payable, accounts receivable and other corporate support services.

"This company had been around for quite some time and had been content to progress along in a very low growth rate and achieve good returns for their ownership, but they weren't maximizing the potential of the company," Wolken says.

Under SMS’s watch, both companies have experienced significant growth -- Wolken says Block by Block has already grown more than 30%. And SMS believes the new subsidiaries will continue to flourish in the coming years.

In 2008, SMS posted revenues in the $300 million range, and Wolken says the company anticipates topping $500 million in annual revenue in the next three to five years. At this time, he says SMS doesn't have plans for further acquisitions.

"We want to make sure that we're taking care of our customers with superior service, that we have strong, long-term relationships and a philosophy of business that endears us to our customers, and that we have the flexibility to operate and help our customers meet their strategic goals. The end result is that we end up growing the company because we have customers that want to do business with us."

Judging by past performance, customers satisfaction should not be an issue for SMS anytime soon.