NORTH AMERICAN DETECTORS TO BUY AMERICAN SENSORS
By Adnews Staff
North American Detectors of Newmarket, Ont. has gotten bigger. The maker of carbon monoxide detectors has bought the assets of American Sensors of Toronto, which filed for protection from creditors in March. American Sensors makes a line of smoke, carbon monoxide and gas detectors. NADI makes carbon monoxide and air quality detectors for residential and industrial markets. Under the deal, ASI will be a division of NADI. NADI will now sell its products under the American Sensors name at the retail level because the name is well recognized. "The acquisition will allow NADI to accelerate its presence in the U.S. marketplace through the immediate acquisition of major U.S. retail accounts," NADI president Greg Elliott says in a release. ASI is a publicly-traded company with 1996 sales reaching $78 million. It was granted protection from after creditors, the Toronto Dominion Bank and the Comerica Bank of Detroit, demanded repayment of over $9 million in loans. North American advertising for ASI is done by DDB Needham Worldwide of New York. Canadian PR is done by Langdon, Starr, Ketchum Public Relations of Toronto. Davidson, Chandler Advertising of Jackson, Tennessee handles North American advertising for NADI. NADI currently has three products on the market: a combination carbon monoxide/smoke detector, a carbon monoxide detector that plugs into the wall and one that is battery-operated. In November, it will introduce digital carbon monoxide detectors: one that plugs into the wall and one that is battery-operated.