In January’s State of the Industry Report, CE Pro research found that the median custom integrator earned $1.1 million in revenues last year. Perhaps coincidentally or perhaps reflective of the industry’s success, that $1.1M figure is also the threshold for the 25th annual CE Pro 100.
Obviously, there are many integrators who choose not to participate, but the CE Pro 100 bottom company predominantly has been achieving loftier revenues year-over-year for several years now.
Overall, the CE Pro 100 took in approximately $6.33 billion during 2023, a figure that is down 18% from the $7.73B total in 2022.
Taking out top company ADT’s massive revenues relative to everyone else’s, the average CE Pro 100 dealer earned about $13.7 million last year. The median revenue by CE Pro 100 companies (the halfway point) is $7.2 million, which is a 6% uptick from last year’s $6.8M median.
CE Pro 100 Fast Facts
- $6.33B – Revenue earned by the CE Pro 100
- $7.2M – Median revenue per integrator
- $13.7M – Average income per integrator
- 68% – Percentage of dealers predicting growth in 2024
- 4% – Percentage of dealers predicting declines in 2024
- 103,841 – Residential installations completed in 2023
- 7,738 – Commercial installations completed in 2023
- 6 – Number of employees per company per project
Most CE Pro 100 Dealers Anticipate Higher Income in 2024
While the CE Pro 100 represents only a fraction of the industry, we are still usually able to glean industry trends and data. If the median integrator is right at the threshold, it’s not a stretch to say the industry is doing very well now.
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More than two-thirds (68%) of the list indicated it is projecting 2024 revenues to be up compared with last year’s number. That group of integrators is predicting a healthy 12.1% bump in revenues this year.
On the other hand, just a mere four integrators are projecting revenues to be down in 2024 (which mirrors sentiments shared at buying group events so far). That leaves roughly 26 (two companies declined to estimate) who are expecting business to remain as steady as last year.
That means 96 out of the 100 companies are projecting solid-to-strong (very in some cases) years — not too shabby for an industry consisting mainly of small-to-medium businesses (SMBs). And even company No. 100 estimates revenues to increase 9% this year.
Average CE Pro 100 Performs 10.4K Residential Jobs
When it comes to sources of revenue, the CE Pro 100 collectively performed 103,841 residential integrated technologies installations, or just over 10K on average per company. Commercial work was brisk as well, with the group completing 7,738 jobs last year, or close to 80 per company on average.
Meanwhile, only one in 10 of the CE Pro 100 earns substantial revenues via recurring monthly revenue (RMR) streams. That represents companies that garnered 20% or more of their 2023 income through RMR.
So that opportunity still abounds for integrators to generate additional, stable income every month. For now, the median integrator pulls in an additional $2%-3% revenue each month.
As far as employee efficiency and production go, the amount of residential projects per full-time employee was 5.5 per staff member. The commercial projects completed per employee is roughly .5, so added together these SMBs are optimizing their workforce.
It makes sense — dealers will commonly have an org chart that includes owner, sales manager, project manager, prewire/rack specialist, and a couple of technicians.
Integrators performed a median 166 residential jobs and 15 commercial projects in 2023.
Just as last year, the line between seven- and 8-figure CE Pro 100 integrators is basically one-third (32 vs. 33, respectively). The next third of dealers comprise roughly the revenue tier of $5M to $10M — this year it is 33; last year, 42.
And with the remaining dealers earning between $1.1M and $5M in 2023, that means rankings can be nicely split into three tiers of milestone growth.
According to the rankings, the median integrator has 24 staff members. Divide that into the list’s median $7.2 million in revenues and that equates to a median $300,000 revenue per employee. That figure is up about 8% year-over-year, underscoring the optimized productivity per employee last year.
To see the full list of who made the CE Pro 100 as well as the revenue and employee breakdown, be sure to check out the full article in CE Pro magazine.
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