Platinum Protection 'breaking mold'

AMERICAN FORK, Utah—Platinum Protection, one of the major Utah-based summer-model companies, will recruit two-thirds of its sales reps from outside the Utah Valley, Platinum CEO Andrew Kindfuller told Security Systems News.

“We're breaking the mold,” Kindfuller said, referring to the fact that a majority of sales reps that work for summer-model companies are recruited from Brigham Young University and other Utah universities.

“We're really focused on being a national company, recruiting in states all around the country,” he said.

Platinum Protection has several year-round offices, including its Tampa office, which is the largest outside of Utah.

Platinum was the focus of news stories in the last year concerning disagreements and settlements with some of its original founders, two of whom have left the company.

Kindfuller acknowledged that some of those issues persist “in the background,” but said the company has stabilized and is looking forward to a strong performance in 2011.

Four of the six original founders are active in the company: Chance Allred, and Keith Dyer both have the title VP of sales; Jared Hallows is COO; and Jake Pruitt is VP installations and service.

Kindfuller, the former COO of Guthy-Renker International, a billion-dollar infomercial and direct-response company, and Scott MacArthur, a former CFO of ADT Security Services, joined Platinum as CEO and CFO, respectively in May of 2010.

The company did 26,500 installs in 2010 and “91 percent were installed the same day,” he said. More than 500 reps have signed up for the 2011 season and the company will begin the summer season with 18 offices.

Kindfuller expect the company will do “at least 15 percent more than last year on accounts.”

Kindfuller is pleased that the average FICO score for new customers in 2010 was 725 and that Platinum has earned a Better Business Bureau rating of “B.” That grade, (higher than the ratings of other summer-sales companies), is the result, Kindfuller said, of a “huge emphasis on clean selling and great customer service.”