CE Pro May 2021 - 27

some cases - as the industry and the world battled the
coronavirus outbreak. But
just like Olympic athletes, CE
Pro 100 integrators rose to
the challenge and overcame
those obstacles - a bit battered and bruised, but still
standing at the end.
When the dust finally
settled on 2020, the median
CE Pro 100 company saw its
revenue fall 2.4%. That slight
drop is actually a huge victory
when you consider many CE
Pro 100 companies were shut
down for a minimum of six
to seven weeks, and in some
cases 10 to 12 weeks.
In general, CE Pro 100
companies were more
susceptible to the ravages
of COVID-19 than any other
segment of the custom installation industry for several
reasons.
First, these larger firms
tend to be based in major
metropolitan areas of the
United States. Those same
major metros, from New York
City to Chicago to San Francisco and Los Angeles and
beyond, are the same areas
where prolonged shutdowns
occurred during the outbreak of the pandemic. And
it's the same place where
most CE Pro 100 integrators
and their staffs live with their
own families, making the
situation doubly tenuous. It
forced these integrators to
take extra time and pre-

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C2105 pp26-36 CEP100.indd 27

cautions for their staffs and
clients, slowing down their
normal pace of business.
Secondly, another
pandemic-related element
that affected CE Pro 100
integrators in 2020 disproportionally more than other
CE pros is project size. Larger
companies such as those in
the CE Pro 100 tend to do
larger-scale projects because
they have the staff resources
capable of completing those
big jobs in a more timely
fashion than a smaller custom integration firm might
be able to do. But many of
those projects (with the
exception of outdoor jobs)
were put on hold when the
pandemic hit as clients were
anxious about having technicians inside their homes.
Thirdly, many of the CE
Pro 100 companies operate
storefronts, whether those
be full-on retail or showrooms that allow walk-in
customers. Obviously, foot
traffic inside store is much
lower due to the pandemic.
That lack of foot traffic is a
difficult blow to companies
that rely on new customers
walking in to generate custom installation sales of the
equipment they sell over the

KEY BENCHMARK NUMBERS
$7,892,932,989
($7.9 billion)
Total CE Pro 100
revenues in 2020

$5.7 million

Median CE Pro 100
revenue in 2020

-2.4%

Percentage decrease
in median CE Pro 100
revenue in 2020 vs. 2019

175

Median number
of smart home
installations in 2020

11

94

Number of CE Pro 100
companies that did at
least one commercial
project in 2020

77

Number of CE Pro 100
companies that earned
some form of RMR in
2020

2%

Median percent of
revenue from RMR
among CE Pro 100
companies

42

Median number
of commercial
installations in 2020

Number of CE Pro 100
companies with more
than one business
location

23

17

Median number of
full-time employees

$219,257

Median revenues per
employee

20 years

Median number of
years in business

Number of CE Pro 100
companies based in
California, the highest
concentration of any
state, followed by 11 in
Florida, 11 in Texas and
9 in New York.

$5.3 billion

Revenues of ADT,
the No. 1 CE Pro 100
company in 2020

May 2021 CE Pro | 27

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CE Pro May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CE Pro May 2021
