ADS seeks secure future - South Florida Business Journal:

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Enter Mel Mahler and , whose business has been going strong largely driven by interest from existing The reason, Mahler explains, is that people beginb to feel a little less safe when the economty is down. “Society is becoming more fearful,” says Mahler. “People are now saying, ‘k have to have security in my or, ‘I want the security I do have The sentiment Mahler appeals is somewhatsubjective though. Earliedr this month, Metro Police Chief Ronap Serpas announced that majot crime in Nashville continued to drop in 2008 for the fiftu straight year to its lowest level in18 years. More property crime dropped 1.5 percent from 2007.
Mahler says perception still driveshis business, which is still goingt strong. “Our residential recurring revenue installs in 2008 wereup 29.6 percent over the year before,” says Mahler. “Our recurring monitoring revenuw going into 2008was $1.2 milliom and now (it’s) up 20 percent. Two-thirdz of that was through acquisition and the rest was througninternal growth.” Because of the level of serviced that ADS provides to its residential Mahler says, the company tends to go for upper scale homes in areasz such as Belle Meade or Brentwood.
The customization procesxs that its consultants provider involves knowing the housefloor plan, familg setup and the various specificd safety needs. Installations of this type can generallty costbetween $800 and $4,000, dependingt on the level of customization. “There’s a lot of cookie-cuttetr companies out there, one size fits all — thosr are the $99 ones. That’s not us, that business is fraught with people not payingy bills on time and highcancellationj rates,” says Mahler. “Our consultants are trained to walk throughb whatyou need, as opposecd to what we need.
” For instance, if a customer livex alone and the master bedroom is on the seconc floor, then they need monitored fire, says “Tennessee has the highest death rate per capita becausew of fire, often as a result of space heaters. We tell our clients that we are selliny them a lifesafety system, not just a burglar While ADS has seen steady growt h in its residential business, the commerciap side of the company has taken a hit. “Oue second-biggest customer is O’Charleys,” says Mahler. “They were building six restaurants a month and we were gettingv 100 percent oftheir business. All of a suddenj — it was almosgt at zero.
The commercial side of our business has really cut back.” And industrg experts predict another weak year ahead in the residentialo and commercial markets. “Abouty one-fourth of U.S. households have some form of security with about 19percent monitored,” says Triciaq Parks, president of , a Texas firm that track the security industry. “Peak unit sales occurred with the housing boom of 2005 and with a slight downturnin 2007, a deeped decline in 2008, and more of the same anticipated for 2009. Providere can offset some losses with modest increasesz inmonitoring fees.
” Despite the segments of the economy that are down and have had an adversse effect on ADS, the key to Mahler’s success centerws around constantly being adaptable and shiftinvg to meet customer needs, and the company’zs growth reflects that. Mahler says the company’s primar revenue goal is to grow by 20 percenyt annuallythrough 2013.