FirstService's Century Fire Acquires A&A Fire Protection in South Carolina

What happened

FirstService Corporation announced on October 19, 2026, that its subsidiary Century Fire Protection had recently acquired A&A Fire Protection, LLC. A&A is a fire sprinkler contractor headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. Jake Gilstrap, A&A's president, will continue to lead day-to-day operations and retain a minority equity interest. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The seller

A&A was founded in 1977 by the grandparents of the family that runs it today, and it has been family-run from the start. The founder sold the business in 2004. In 2016, Jake Gilstrap, the son of the original owner, bought it back into the family. The fourth generation of the family is now active in the company.

A&A designs, installs, inspects, and repairs fire sprinkler systems for a broad range of commercial end markets. Its service area covers Upstate South Carolina (Greenville, Anderson, and Spartanburg) and Greenwood, plus Asheville, Gastonia, and Brevard in North Carolina and Evans and other parts of north Georgia. The team includes South Carolina backflow-certified specialists, and the company offers 24-hour emergency service.

The buyer

Century Fire Protection was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. It works across sprinkler, alarm, special hazards, and extinguisher systems, with more than 2,000 employees in more than 45 offices across 14 states. Its Carolina locations include offices in Charlotte, Hickory, Raleigh, and Asheboro, North Carolina, and in Greenwood, South Carolina, a market A&A also serves.

Century is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation, a property services company whose shares trade on the NASDAQ and the Toronto Stock Exchange. FirstService runs two platforms, FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands, and has approximately 30,000 employees across North America.

"This acquisition furthers Century's strategy of enhancing its scale and broadening its client base in existing markets," said Richard Deeb, Century's CEO. "We are excited to be partnering with the A&A team and look forward to collectively deepening our fire sprinkler and alarm capabilities in the growing Carolina markets."

Century has used the same terms before

A&A's terms match four earlier Century acquisitions announced in July 2024 and May 2026. In each, the existing management team kept a minority equity stake and continued to run day-to-day operations. The nearest to A&A is Sentry Fire Protection, founded in 2008 in Asheboro, North Carolina, which installs and inspects sprinkler systems for commercial and retail clients in north-central North Carolina. Titan Fire Protection, acquired in May 2026, is a Tampa, Florida, contractor established in 1997. It installs and retrofits fire sprinkler systems for commercial and institutional clients across Central Florida. Owners comparing the buyers active in the sector can find more on our fire and life safety page.

What this means for fire protection owners

For fire protection owners, keeping a piece of the business after a sale is not only something private-equity buyers offer. A strategic with a publicly traded parent keeps agreeing to the same arrangement, so a sale to a corporate buyer and keeping rollover equity are not a trade-off an owner has to make.

OffDeal is an advisory firm that helps lower-middle-market business owners sell with confidence. Reach out to learn more about our expertise with fire protection businesses in South Carolina.

Own a fire protection business with $5M–$100M in revenue? We’re glad to give you an honest read on what it’s worth and who would buy it — no pitch, no pressure. Get a free valuation.

Source: GlobeNewswire - https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/10/19/3383919/36351/en/century-fire-protection-acquires-a-a-fire-protection.html