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My Alarm Center borrows to grow

'Hard to find' labor, says ceo Amy Kothari

My Alarm Center, the Newtown Square-based, $90 million+/yearly sales home-security company, says it has raised $10 million from a debt issue led by Ironwood Capital, Avon, Conn.

Amy Kothari, My Alarm chief executive, told me her company will use the money to pay down previous debt and to "support organic growth and acquisitions." She says it's a good time again to buy "mom-and-pop" alarm companies "because of the economic climate, competition and product complexity." (Revised) 

Wells Fargo's Norwest Venture Partners bought into the company in 2012; it hasn't disclosed the cash value of its position. The company has doubled in size since then, Kothari says, while building up its Newtown Square call center. My Alarm borrowed $50 million last fall, placed with lenders by Imperial Capital, Los Angeles, boosting its credit facility to $305 million.

The company boasts 185,000 customers, which makes it the ninth-largest in the U.S., according to the list maintained by Security Defense Magazine (SDM), though far behind industry leaders like ADT (now owned by Apollo Global, which has been buying other large firms) and the cable companies. The industry also includes thousands of local shops.

Among the issues alarm services face: "It's hard to find the $12 an hour callcenter person, or the $16 an hour technical person, who are qualified and good quality," Kothari told me. "We've been able to do a lot of training. our retention levels are phenomenal; but you have to go through 20 people to find one that can speak well on the phone and talk to customers."

It's especially hard to find workers in the Philadelphia area and other East Coast markets, she added.