At the Barnes-Buchanan conference last week in Palm Beach, the mood was positive for the security alarm industry. The conference, which is primarily attended by large alarm industry firms and investors/buyers for these firms, often serves as an annual assessment for the financial state of the alarm industry and is organized by firms that specialize in alarm industry acquisitions.
Here are the primary take-aways from this year's Barnes Buchanan Conference:
- Installs are down or flat, but recurring monthly revenue (RMR) has increased.
- Capital investment firms are "very supportive" of the security industry.
- The alarm industry is far from recession proof, but is resilient
- Industry saw 2% or less overall alarm industry growth but 5% growth in revenues for monitoring and service.
Barnes concluded that the RMR growth is off-setting shrinking installation numbers. For a full report of the 2012 Barnes Buchanan conference, including a look at the numbers behind the prognostications, read the March 2012 issue of Security Dealer & Integrator magazine.
