Peak Alarm named dealer of the year SDM magazine 2023

https://www.sdmmag.com/articles/102643-sdm-2023-dealer-of-the-year-reaches-peak-performance?oly_enc_id=2883F4348367C0V

Peak Alarm was named SDM Magazine’s dealer of the year for 2023

Faced with debt, higher than desired attrition, challenges in retaining employees, inflation and supply chain issues caused by a global pandemic, this company managed to get completely debt-free, lower attrition, raise both wages and prices, and still make a profit — all of which resulted in a “war chest” that helped them invest in key cyber and marketing efforts

When Jerry Howe and his wife Gayle decided to move to Salt Lake City in 1969 and start an alarm business, Jerry’s boss at the time — Bay Alarm’s Everett Westfall — asked him, “Is there crime in Utah?” Jerry replied, “If there isn’t, I might be in trouble.”

Having served in the U.S. Navy and previously worked for ADT as well as Bay Alarm, Howe had little to worry about as it turned out. In fact, a Utah-based small alarm company heard he was looking and offered to sell him the business if he could get there right away. As soon as they arrived, the owner of Day and Night Security handed Jerry the keys to two Volkswagen vans he used as service vehicles, and a written list of 130 customers; Jerry began answering calls and responding to alarms almost on the spot. While the early days were tough and required near 24/7 work — at one point prompting Gayle to put a crib mattress in the back of the van so their two oldest children, just toddlers at the time, “would know they have a father and spend time with him” — the Howes, together with their five children would forge what today is one of the premier security dealers in Utah.

Named by Gayle’s mother for the mountain peaks that surround Salt Lake City, and because it needed to be short enough to fit on the bell boxes, Peak Alarm today is still headquartered in Salt Lake, with six branch offices in Utah and neighboring states, nearly 400 employees and about 17,000 customers that the company monitors from its own UL listed 5 Diamond Monitoring center. Peak Alarm has risen steadily in the ranks of the SDM 100 Report  over the years as well, from No. 69 in 2009 to No. 37 on the 2023 report.