DTT opening new office, plans to hire 500

LOS ANGELES—DTT Surveillance, a manufacturer and integrator of video surveillance solutions, is opening a new corporate office in Las Vegas, plans to hire 500 new employees and is breaking into two new vertical markets.

The new corporate office will house three different departments: an additional technical support group providing 24/7 service to DTT customers; a loss prevention department that provides LP services such as smart audit, employee background checks and slip-and-fall investigation services; and a sales department.

“The sales department will [work on] additional growth for DTT's established hospitality vertical and a new specialty retail team that will work on new vertical markets for us, C-stores [convenience stores] and small-box retail,” Sam Naficy, president and CEO of DTT, told Security Systems News.

DTT Surveillance, which is headquartered here, regularly appears on the INC 5000's list of fastest growing companies. It had revenues of $7.9 million in 2008, $17.2 million in 2011 and Naficy projects 2013 revenues to be “$24 million plus.”

The company also supports and monitors its video surveillance solutions and currently has more than $2 million in RMR.

What's driving that growth? “I think it's adoption of our services, and we keep enhancing those services and adding more deliverables,” Naficy said. The company also has a “compelling story, with so many customer testimonials about the ROI,” he added.

Naficy said DTT “has a few hundred convenience stores already” in places where a convenience store is colocated with a McDonalds or other fast food stores. The new Las Vegas-based sales team will be charged with “going hard directly at big C-store [brands] such as 7-11 and Arco,” he said.

It will also look to bring on small-box retailers such as Foot Locker or other “retailers with a smaller size, analogous to C-stores. At this stage we're not going after a Sears or Walmart or Kmart. That's not our gig.”

Las Vegas offers a talented workforce, lower cost of living compared to Los Angeles and no state income tax for employees, Naficy said. And while the company has hired some local LP professionals with a background in the gaming vertical, it does not intend to break into that vertical, he said.

DTT currently has 450 employees, a handful of whom may relocate to Las Vegas. In the next six weeks, DTT will hire an additional 200 to 250 new employees in Las Vegas. “We will double the number of employees [to about 1,000] within 12 months,” Naficy said.

DTT is financing its growth with the help of its owners, Boston Ventures, which recapitalized DTT in March 2012, and with the help of its senior lender, Capital One. In March 2012, Capital One provided DTT with a $40 million credit facility. That facility was recently upped to $44 million, Naficy said.

What kinds of enhanced services is DTT adding? The core of its offering is video surveillance and monitoring, but its portal provides a whole suite of services for retailers. For example, “If an employee has a slip-and-fall claim, that claim, the associated police report and related video is in the portal,” he said.

A new service DTT will launch soon is energy management. Naficy said those participating in a pilot study are seeing “a 10 to 15 percent reduction in energy bills each month.”

DTT will also be launching a new service called “Scream,” which will allow DTT customers to be in touch with their customers via text message. The idea is that a quick-serve restaurant customer can send the restaurant “compliments or complaints,” and the restaurant can respond immediately with apologies, thanks and special offers.

DTT's customers include McDonalds, Subway and Taco Bell.