Mountain Alarm opens new HQ

OGDEN, Utah—Mountain Alarm, a national fire protection, security and home automation company, recently opened a new headquarters here that will serve the company's 14 branches in six western states as well as its rapidly growing national DIY business.

“This new facility is a giant leap forward—we went from about 8,000 square feet in our old facility to 40,000 square feet in this new one,” Rod Garner, CEO and president of Mountain Alarm, told Security Systems News, noting that the company needed more space both inside and outside for parking, which was severely lacking.

“The branch that was demanding more space was our Link Interactive branch, which is our nationwide DIY business,” Garner explained. “We had gone from one employee in the old building to 30 employees. We found this new building and began with plans to totally gut the facility and redo it according to our needs and specifications.”

The renovation included a new roof and new HVAC, “but we kept the beautiful brick walls and the glass all around the place, which was what attracted us to begin with,” Garner explained. “With the finished product, we are all just pinching ourselves because it is just an amazing building, especially being in a park setting with beautiful views. We feel it is a great investment and will be our home from years and years to come.”

The design team for the new building included company COO Eric Garner, CFO Michael Bailey, and CTO Aaron Allen, who are the owners of the building and “the future leaders of this company,” said Garner.

The new headquarters features five new conference rooms and each of Mountain Alarm's three main businesses—the fire alarm business, the traditional burglar alarm business, and the DIY business—has its own area in the building.

“Each of those three has their own section and identity within the building, and they have beautiful conference rooms and work areas, and little huddle stations, which is just ideal,” Garner explained. “And each office has a lot of natural light.”

The facility also has a large boardroom with a divider. “When we open that up, we can fit more than 100 people in the room,” said Garner, noting that the company's inventory is all stored and divided on site for each distinct business, which the company was not able to do in its previous facility.

The new facility also gives the company more room to grow. In terms of overall growth, in 2016 Mountain Alarm did $38 million in sales and just shy of $1.4 million in RMR, according to Garner. “We're going to cross over $1.5 million organically in 2017 and we are going to do somewhere between $42- and $45 million in volume in 2017, in addition to some acquisitions that we are always trying to cultivate.”

Overall from 2015 to 2016, Garner said the company was up about 12 percent, and he anticipates growth at about 12- to 15 percent for 2017. “In 2015 we crossed over $5 million in EBITDA, which was a huge goal, and our next EBITDA goal is $7 million for this year,” he said.

The DIY business has contributed greatly to the company's success. “We started Link Interactive five years ago and had no idea that it would be this successful and become our largest branch,” Garner said, adding that the business has 9,000 accounts and is doing just under $300,000 in RMR. “In 10 years it will just dwarf everything that we do,” he said.

Other Mountain Alarm brands include CopperState Fire Protection, operating throughout the state of Arizona, and Kenco Security and Technology with offices in Montana and Wyoming.

All of Mountain Alarm's approximately 50,000 accounts are monitored through Avantguard, which is owned by Rod's son Josh Garner. “Their new facility is amazing and is just a few blocks from our new facility,” said Garner.

Mountain Alarm plans on having an open house for its new facility in September, once the final touches are added, including paintings and other interior decorations.