Times are good for The Brink's Company, best known for its home security alarm sales. Brink's today announced that its first quarter income saw significant gains over the previous year, from $10.5 million to $24.2 million.
The company reported first-quarter continuing operations revenues of $663.6 million, and operating profit from continuing operations of $44.1 million.
Brink's CEO Michael Dan accredited some of the boost in profitability to "strong" sales in the U.S. and South America. Dan indicated that the European market, which saw a restructuring in 2005, had seen the restructuring's cost improvements negated by market weaknesses.
Dan also indicated that the home security business was a key driving factor in profitability.
"First-quarter results at Brink's Home Security also improved, and we continue to expect that annual sales and profit growth in this business will exceed 10%," he said.
The home security division gained 43,100 new subscribers during the quarter, a number that the company says reflects a 10 percent increase over the number of newly installed subscribers added in Q1 2005. At the end of the first quarter 2006, Brink's Home Security had a total of approximately 1,048,000 subscribers. Those subscribers reportedly generate RMR of $30.1 million for the company.
The quarterly financial announcement also coincided with Brink's creation of a new division within its ranks. The new division, Brink's Business Security, will specialize in commercial alarm systems and monitoring. The business division was spun out of its Texas-based Home Security division.
"The security industry is highly fragmented, with thousands of companies providing services to commercial customers, but very few have coast-to-coast coverage," said Doug Valenski, director of national accounts for Brink's Business Security, when announcing the new division. "Companies with multiple locations can now use Brink's as their sole security provider."
