GuardMe Security moves into North Carolina

OLD BRIDGE, N.J.—After recent expansions into the Midwest and Maine, GuardMe Security, based here, in June added North Carolina to the growing list of states where it is offering home security/home automation.

“The housing market in North Carolina is starting to improve … and it's an excellent market in general for security,” GuardMe President Craig Metzger told Security Systems News. “It's densely populated and has a fair amount of crime.”

GuardMe, an 80-employee company with more than 40,000 customers that was founded in 1997, describes itself as “a leading provider of home automation solutions in New Jersey.” It also provides security to commercial and industrial clients.

Outside of New of Jersey, it operates in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and in April it began providing home security/home automation in Indiana. In May, it expanded to Ohio and then to Maine.

GuardMe announced June 19 that it has now expanded to North Carolina. Metzger told SSN that the company has opened an office in Mooresville, N.C., which is a suburb of Charlotte, but it offers services throughout the state.

The company also has brick-and-mortar offices in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Columbus, Ohio.

GuardMe hasn't finished expanding. “I don't think it will be as rapid as it was in Ohio, Indiana and now North Carolina, but in a few more months you'll see another state will be added,” Metzger predicted.

Why so much growth of late? “I think it's the improving economy and being well positioned,” Metzger said. “We have a strong infrastructure to be able to support this growth."

The company, which generates many of its leads through the Internet, uses a teleselling approach. “It's all inbound,” Metzger said. “We do marketing to create interest. …We don't do any outbound telemarketing. The prospect calls us because they're interested in our products and services and we sell it to them over the telephone.”

The company keeps some of its accounts and sells others, in a roughly 50-50 split between commercial and residential, he said.