Bates Security's new home fits its growth

LEXINGTON, KY.—Bates Security, based here, has grown so much in recent years that it had to move to a larger building. Now it's holding a grand opening for its new location on April 25, and also celebrating the fact that business has increased steadily year after year despite the economic downturn.

“You would have no idea there had been a recession, based on our output and our growth,” Jeremy Bates, general manager and co-owner of the company, a Honeywell First Alert Professional dealer, told Security Systems News.

“Basically we took a very positive and strong growth attitude and didn't let the recession become an excuse for us,” he said.

Bates said that in the five-year period since 2008, the company has grown its RMR by 103 percent, increased gross revenue and accounts by more than 80 percent, and boosted the number of employees by nearly 75 percent.

The company currently has more than 50 employees, nearly 4,400 accounts, more than $8 million in gross revenues and in excess of $300,000 in RMR.

Four acquisitions over the past few years have added about $40,000 in RMR, but most of the growth in that area has been organic, Bates said.

The Bates family owns Bates Security, of which about 50 percent of the business is residential, and the Sonitrol of Lexington franchise, which is primarily commercial, Bates said.

“In essence, it's one large security company,” but they're branded as two for the general public, he said.

They're also housed in the same building, but the company's 8,000-square-foot former site in downtown Lexington, its home for about a decade, was “bursting at the seams” and lacked adequate parking, he said.

The new three-story, 14,000-square-foot building it purchased has room for the company to expand and plenty of parking, he said. Bates said the new site is still in Lexington but closer to the suburbs, and “centrally located for the geographic area we cover,” which is central and northern Kentucky.

A major goal for the company in 2013 is increasing its residential business, Bates said. “We're ramping up our residential sales force, and we're looking at means of building our lead generation base and also strategic partnerships to help grow the residential business,” he said.

The company moved into its new location last June but is holding its grand opening this spring as events at Keeneland Race Course, one of its customers, get underway.

Guests will spend an afternoon at the track. “We wanted all of guests, if they weren't from Kentucky, to have a taste of Kentucky and what it's all about,” Bates explained.

As part of the festivities, the company also is making a donation that will enable the local police department to purchase some needed equipment, he said.