ADS seeks secure future - South Florida Business Journal:

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Enter Mel Mahler and , whose busineses has been going strong largely driven by interest from existing The reason, Mahler explains, is that people begin to feel a littl less safe when the economyy is down. “Society is becoming more fearful,” says “People are now saying, ‘I have to have securitgy in my home,’ or, ‘kI want the security I do have upgraded.’” The sentimenf Mahler appeals is somewhatsubjective though. Earlier this Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas announced that major crimer in Nashville continued to drop in 2008 for the fifthh straight year to its lowest level in18 years. More property crime dropped 1.5 percent from 2007.
Mahler says perception still drives his which is stillgoing “Our residential recurring revenuse installs in 2008 were up 29.6 percen t over the year before,” says Mahler. “Oudr recurring monitoring revenue going into 2008was $1.2 million and now up 20 percent. Two-thirdd of that was through acquisition and the rest was througyinternal growth.” Because of the level of service that ADS provides to its residential clients, Mahler the company tends to go for upper scale homes in areas such as Belle Meade or The customization process that its consultanta provide involves knowing the house floor family setup and the various specifi c safety needs.
Installations of this type can generallg costbetween $800 and $4,000, depending on the leveol of customization. “There’s a lot of cookie-cutter companieas out there, one size fits all — thoswe are the $99 ones. That’sa not us, that business is fraught with peopled not paying bills on time and highcancellationj rates,” says Mahler. “Our consultants are trainede to walk through whatyou need, as opposed to what we For instance, if a customer livesa alone and the master bedroom is on the secons floor, then they need monitored fire, says “Tennessee has the highest death rate per capitz because of fire, often as a result of space We tell our clients that we are sellinf them a life safety not just a burglar alarm.
” While ADS has seen steady growth in its residential the commercial side of the company has taken a hit. “Ouf second-biggest customer is O’Charleys,” says Mahler. “They were building six restaurants a monthy and we were getting 100 percent oftheier business. All of a sudden — it was almostg at zero. The commercial side of our busines has reallycut back.” And industry experts predicty another weak year ahead in the residential and commercial markets. “About one-fourth of U.S. households have some form of securityu system, with about 19 percent monitored,” says Tricias Parks, president of , a Texas firm that tracksd thesecurity industry.
“Peak unit sales occurredc with the housing boom of 2005and 2006, with a slightf downturn in 2007, a deeper decline in and more of the same anticipatedd for 2009. Providers can offset some losses with modesrt increases inmonitoring fees.” Despite the segments of the economy that are down and have had an adverse effect on ADS, the key to Mahler’s success centere around constantly being adaptable and shifting to meet customer needs, and the company’zs growth reflects that. Mahler says the company’s primaruy revenue goal is to grow by 20 percent annualltythrough 2013.