Criticom International unveils new marketing and finance campaign

DALLAS--Criticom International, a solutions provider to independent dealers, unveiled a marketing campaign in April that combines the strengths of Criticom and acquired companies NACC and FSS into a single sales organization to facilitate growth for dealers and its three monitoring centers. The campaign, focusing on three product verticals--monitoring, dealer services and acquisitions--includes the announcement of a high-multiple financing program that is "designed for a dealer that has predictable volumes, proven track records, and who needs equity in the business," said executive vice president Mike Fields. Currently, Criticom provides financing in the form of term loans and lines of credit up to a multiple of 27X recurring monthly revenue. Under this program, it would provide additional financing up to 30X RMR for certain qualified dealers. Understanding each dealer's unique circumstances motivated this new financing program. "We recognize that all dealers are not cut from the same mold. We deal with traditional companies that may not ever need financing because they sell high margin projects that don't require the need to tap into capital," Fields said. Currently one dealer has closed on the program this month. Fields said there are a few pending transactions in the process, however, and "each has different characteristics depending on what the objective is." Fields anticipates that the high multiple program will be used when the borrower contracts monitoring services through Criticom. "If you take a look at who we are as an organization, first and foremost we are wholesale monitoring company. Wholesale monitoring is the engine that pulls the train," Fields added. He also said one key to the program will be to "have a mechanism to mitigate our risk, so we will not dilute the dealer's ownership of the business, which they have worked so hard on." Read more about Criticom's marketing programs in Security Systems News June issue.