Well, there’s no sugarcoating the fact that this year’s CE Pro 100 rankings of high-revenue integrators ran into tough sledding in 2024. This year’s list garnered approximately $1.9 billion in total revenue, which is a $5B drop from a year ago.
Of course, there are many factors that have influenced this decrease — chief among those, clearly less customer demand amid economic uncertainties around the election impacted the industry plus a natural turnover in integrators that chose to participate in this year’s CE Pro 100.
One point about that, and something readers might not realize, is that just getting 100+ companies to submit their data is a near-Herculean task but this now marks the 26th edition of the CE Pro 100.
For the full list of this year’s CE Pro 100, scroll to the bottom of this article.
CE Pro 100 Companies Average $11.1M in Revenue Last Year
It’s not shocking that the numbers can swing wildly from one year to the next, and this year large companies such as Bravas, World Wide Stereo, and Bekins opted not to apply — that trio ranked Nos. 5, 6, and 14 on last year’s list, accounting for combined revenues of $154.6M. Plus, a couple of integrators on last year’s CE Pro 100 were since scooped up by upstart Daisy, which did not submit this year.
Also, keep in mind that this list still comprises a mere fraction of the custom integration sector. Still, relative to the industry as a whole, the CE Pro 100 still reflects that these integrators possess the business acumen to rise to their successful heights. For some, that has meant a perennial spot on the annual list. t
Based on research from this year’s CE Pro State of the Industry report, the median dealer pulled in $1.065 million. Compare that with the median CE Pro 100 integrator, which did about 6x that amount earning $6.25 million in revenue in 2024 — though that is down almost $1M from $7.2M a year ago.
Remember when we’re talking medians it marks the midpoint where half the list is above and half below.
Meanwhile, national smart home and security provider ADT was once again king of the CE Pro 100, leading the way with $587.8M from. They typically reign in the rankings not only because they perform a substantial amount of installations, but because those are predominantly linked to security subscriber accounts ADT raked in 88% of their revenue from recurring revenue streams.
The average CE Pro 100 company garnered $11.1M last year. To arrive at that figure, though, we did not include ADT so it would produce a more accurate depiction of individual dealers.
Security Firms Head Up Growing RMR Opportunities
Not counting ADT, another security-based company, Guardian Protection, ranked second again on the 2025 list. Again, a hefty 71% from RMR helped the company pull in $200M last year.
One interesting note about ADT and Guardian Protection is that the combination of intelligent security and smart home solutions provides a winning formula when done right. While much of the list was down in 2024 as noted, the RMR helped ADT and Guardian Protection enjoyed revenue gains of 31% and 6%, respectively.
Interestingly, and likely reflecting the steadily growing security demand since the pandemic, Guardian’s increases came despite completing about 3,200 fewer residential jobs and 200 fewer commercial projects. That’s incentive enough to explore adding security to your portfolio if it’s not already in there.
In the good news department, when it comes to RMR, more CE Pro 100 companies are embracing and earning significant portions of overall revenue via sources such as service contracts.
In the 2024 CE Pro 100, only 10 integrators took in 20% or more recurring revenue; in this year’s data, 13 companies earned 20%+ from RMR and 22 firms earned 10%+ in that area.
The median RMR is 4%, which is up from between 2% and 3%, meaning that the median CE Pro 100 took in a healthy $250,000 last year. That said, 23 integrators still make 1% or less income coming from recurring revenue, so there is plenty of room for growth there.
2025 Outlook Expected to Be Big for CE Pro 100
With all of that context in mind, CE Pro 100 dealers are expecting a huge rebound in 2025.
When asked about their outlook for this year (the list was put together in late March), almost three-quarters of the list (72%) say they anticipate increases in revenue this year; that’s four more than last year’s group. Two companies declined to state their outlook.
Only three companies say they are projecting declines while the rest of the companies forecast flat growth. So essentially 97% of the list predict being steady or stronger in their earnings in 2025.
However, it’s not just that 72 out of 100 companies forecast increased revenue this year, it’s the scope of many companies’ projections that should give the industry much positivity and optimism for a strong 2025.
Of those companies anticipating growth this year, 36 say they are on track for increases of 10% or greater. Of those companies, 20 expect bumps of at least 15% revenue — and seven are looking at 20%+ gains.
The threshold for a spot on this year’s CE Pro 100 list turned out to be the same as last year at $1.1M by Beverly Hills SMART Homes. However, owner Jay Dobensky happily reports that 2025 will be between 50% and 100%; and No. 90 Aspire Audio Video Solutions may be several notches higher next year as they anticipate doubling last year’s $2.3M.
CE Pro 100 Outpaces Industry Residential Project Completion by 4x
In a similar vein as the median revenue earned by CE Pro 100 companies, they also completed many more residential projects in 2024 than the industry at large. These integrators completed a median 156 residential jobs last year vs. 40 as reported in the State of the Industry research.
On the commercial side, the CE Pro 100 performed a median 15 projects last year, compared with a whopping 52 for the industry noted in the State of the Industry report. As noted in that January/February issue’s report, though, income from the residential and commercial work added up to roughly a 50/50 split of total revenue.
Not counting ADT, the average CE Pro 100 integrator completed 811 residential jobs and 73 commercial projects last year. While the commercial figure is near the average of 80 jobs last year, residential work fell from around 1,000 projects in 2023.
The retail/etail segment in particular appeared to be hit hard last year. The leaders among that group on the CE Pro 100 list was paced again by Southern California dealer Just One Touch/Audio & Video Center at $145 million, which saw around a $5M decrease in 2024 revenues from the year prior.
Behind Just One Touch, Chicago-area Abt Electronics reported earning $101M in 2023 and $40M last year, performing about 4,000 fewer residential installs. Bjorn’s AV in San Antonio and Five Smooth Stones in Jacksonville were down by $1M+.
Lastly, in another good sign for the industry, integrators continue to optimize their staffs and generating greater efficiency.
This year’s list garnered $284,091 per employee, compared with last year’s median $300K. That’s slightly down, but considering the decreased number of installations it remains a pretty productive employee-to-revenue percentage.
And again, when removing ADT and its ~12,800 employees so as not to distort averages, integrators saw nearly $300K ($299,271) per employee.
With the average integrator on the list in business for a little more than 26 years, it will be interesting to see if their projections prove to be in line with reality. If they’re correct, 2025 may bear out to be massive year, but that’s still a big “if” to overcome.
