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Security companies hit Fortune 100

Security companies hit Fortune 100 Napco, Optelecom-NKF, Universal Security Instruments listed on the Fortune Small Business 100

NEW YORK--Hey Napco, you're #72. Optelecom-NKF, you're #76. Universal Security Instruments, you're #90. Sure, it's not the list of Fortune 500 companies that finds GE at #7, UTC at #43, and Honeywell at #71, but it's nice recognition, nonetheless. In August, Fortune Magazine published its annual list of the Fortune Small Business 100, ranking public companies with revenues of less than $200 million and a stock price of more than $1. Rankings were based on their three-year growth in earnings, revenue, and performance (though the magazine excludes banks and real-estate firms, which it says would dominate the list otherwise) Unsurprisingly, with security a growth market, a handful of security-related companies made the list for the first time. With research provided by financial firm Zacks, Napco Security Group, for instance, hit the list for the first time with $67.2 million in revenues, showing rapid growth under the leadership of chief executive officer Richard Soloway. The Amityville, N.Y.-based manufacturer of alarm and locking systems, now employs 860. Also, the rapidly growing smoke and CO alarm manufacturer Universal Security Instruments entered the list after pulling in $27.5 million in revenues with its 19 employees. Chief executive officer Henry Grossblatt said, "Yeah, we like the idea that we got recognized by Fortune Magazine ... but we've been focused on rewarding the shareholder" since a management restructuring in 2001, so it doesn't come as a surprise. In fact, he noted that if you bought $10,000 worth of the company's stock in 2001, it would now be worth more than $200,000. Which, he said with some understatement, "is a pretty good increase." The upsurge continued in the first quarter of 2006, where the company announced a 77 percent increase in net income, to $1.5 million, on net sales that rose to roughly 16 percent. To what does Grossblatt attribute the increases, considering there are basically only three other companies, all of them quite large, in the smoke and CO alarm business? "We design our units with added features and benefits," he said. "We try to do unique things and design for ease of installation for the installer, try to do things that make us different and stand out." Optelecom-NKF's status at #76 is the same as last year's. The highest ranked security company in the Small Business 100 is LoJack, at #28, up from #86 last year. It's unclear whether the auto-theft device's sponsorship of stolen bases on Red Sox broadcasts is behind the surge up the list.

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