"Best-In-Show"
(reprinted courtesy of Security Dealer magazine, by Michelle S. Rosen)
David Breed, president, Tasco Security is a top and rare "breed" of dealer/installer. He is finding a very profitable niche in the high-end residential installation market. As a NAPCO "Signature" dealer/installer, he puts his distinctive stamp on every project he signs on for. Tasco Security, founded in 1968 and headquartered in a picturesque 4,000-square-foot log cabin in Lebanon, NH, serves about 2,500 residential and business customers in Massachussetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The company has 16 employees. While the company's average installation price is $2,900, high-end residential installations run quite a bit more.
Says Breed, "Out of our 2,500 customers, approximately 40 percent, or around 940, are high-end residential clients, who own properties that range from $400,000 to an $11 million house we're working on now."
Typically, these customers spend anywhere from $5,000-$15,000 -- and sometimes more -- to have their systems installed. "Our high-end clients often perceive the need for security because their second homes in northern New England are in rural areas," Breed comments. "Many of our clients are well-to-do and from urban centers like Boston. They come up north for the weekend. They want the heat on, the hot tub ready, and they want to be assured that no one has been or is inside their house when they arrive."
Of course, the needs of each client are always somewhat different. Tasco's bottom-line philosophy, whether designing a basic or high-end system, is that they provide "life safety systems" as opposed to "alarm systems". Tasco's considerations include: smoke/fire; heat; low temperature; water; carbon monoxide; gas; doors/windows; motion detection via CCTV systems; backup generators AC/power monitoring; gun and money safe user-code locks; floor stress detection; and panic. In addition, with Tasco's large number of high-end customers, there are also needs that relate to property (i.e. Are there valuable collections in the home? Are there people coming in and out of the house to be aware of?).
"We have installed safe rooms, for example, which are usually located next to the master bedroom and are retrofitted with reinforced door frames. long throw bolts, and high-security locks, to protect homeowners from intruders," says Breed.
The room comes equipped with a cellular phone, a flashlight, and any kind of defense weapon the client is capable of using -- from a baseball bat to an MP-5, according to Breed. "People who are involved in highly controversial activities (i.e. the CEO of a pharmaceutical company that's bring the abortion pill to the U.S., for example) may be worried about protecting himself and his family," he explains. "Measures such as a safe room added to an extensive life safety system round out a client's protective planning."
