Leland-based crime scene supplies company Tri-Tech Forensics has acquired Rescue Essentials, a company that sells emergency kits, for an undisclosed amount of money, according to a news release.

Tri-Tech Forensics, 8770 Trade St. NE in Leland, will leverage its core kitting and logistics management expertise to enable Rescue Essentials to focus on product development and market expansion, officials said in the release.

With the purchase, the companies can offer products to a wider customer base.

Rescue Essentials "is one of the leaders in pre-hospital care with their medical kits for people that require medical attention before they get to the hospital. So it's an area that our managing directors have been looking to get into for quite some time,” CEO of Tri-Tech Forensics James Seidel said Tuesday.

Tri-Tech Forensics provides physical and digital evidence collection solutions and crime scene investigation products to law enforcement markets throughout the world, according to the release.

Tri-Tech Forensics continues to develop products to aid in all aspects of forensic investigation, crime laboratory analysis, digital forensics and evidence preservation, officials said in the release.

“Rescue Essentials will give us exposure to that growing market, and we are excited to welcome the Rescue Essentials team into the Tri-Tech Forensics family. We believe the purchasing experience of our customers will be greatly enhanced by the increased product breadth this acquisition brings,” Seidel said in the release.

Colorado-based Rescue Essentials is a manufacturer and marketer of individual first-aid kits, tactical EMS supplies and first responder trauma gear and equipment. Its products are sold to medical and law enforcement agencies throughout the world, including the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and U.S. Department of Defense, officials said.

The Rescue Essentials deal made sense for the company because a lot of the company’s sales go to law enforcement customers, "and that's the same customer base we have," Seidel said.

"We actually have a much greater number of law enforcement customers and contracts,” he said. “We hope to take their products to our customers.”

Two products of the Rescue Essentials business highlighted by Seidel on Tuesday were the patented product called the Slishman Traction Splint -- a compact light-weight, heavy-duty splint that is used by the military -- and involvement in the national Stop the Bleed campaign, launched by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.

"There is a high percentage of people that die because they bleed out. And there are fairly inexpensive kits out there to prevent that, to stop the bleeding in the field and take them from where ever the trauma happened to the ambulance to the hospital where they can be cared for," Seidel said of the campaign, for which the newly acquired company is providing kits, along with other manufacturing companies.

"Those are key areas in terms of products and product lines; those are the two areas that grabbed us," Seidel said of Rescue Essentials.

Of Tri-Tech's growth, Seidel said, "We've had a nice organic growth story since I've been with the company four years ago. We have been headed in the right direction," Seidel said. "My experience with acquisitions is that if you integrate them right ... your organic growth increases even faster. And that's what we are hoping to accomplish."

The company is already making plans to expand Tri-Tech's Leland operations with an additional 20,000 square feet, by extending its manufacturing operations into a total of 40,000 square feet.

More than 60 employees currently work at Tri-Tech, and the company has plans to hire more as the company grows.

"We've had a decent organic growth run and we recently were awarded the RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police DNA test kit business, which requires a clean room ... so it's a big deal for us as a company. And it's our first piece of business that requires a clean room. So we're looking at putting in a clean room," Seidel said. "This will be something that we hope to have put in place by the end of the second quarter."