Now located on Bridge Street, Habitec Security serves the region of Northern Michigan from Cadillac north to the Mackinac Bridge.

The business, which specializes in custom home and commercial security systems, had been located in Boyne City for more than 10 years. This branch of Habitec is part of a larger security company based in Toledo, Ohio, with three main locations throughout Ohio and Michigan.

Habitec was founded in 1972 by James Smythe and is currently run by his son, John Smythe. The company has approximately 100 employees overall and maintains six local staff including general manager Paul Donat. Donat noted that every location is unique and tries to become a part of the community it is in, which helps them to better serve their customers’ needs.

“We loved being in Boyne City,” Donat said, adding, “The opportunity to be right on U.S. 31 was the right move for our business to grow.”

Habitec leases space in Charlevoix, and now has more room to expand and be more centrally located to their customer base.

Donat stated that they specialize in high end emergency reporting systems for new construction, which fits right in with much of the Charlevoix community’s needs.

More than 50 percent of their clients are seasonal residents, Donat said, and rely on Habitec to monitor and secure their homes during the winter months.

Habitec offers sales, installation and monitoring of all types of security systems. Such systems may be used to prevent intrusion, burglary, environmental issues such as storm damage and can even notify you of loss of power or low temperature in your home.

“Many seasonal residents take advantage of Habitec’s monitoring services to prevent small issues such as a water leak from becoming disastrous,” Donat noted.

Habitec also offers a unique service for people concerned about living independently while remaining safe. They offer a monitoring system that can be worn by the client at all times, even in the shower, giving them the ability to notify someone should they have an emergency.

“For elderly people living alone or people with special needs, this system can really help them become more independent,” Donat added.

Habitec’s system is monitored 24 hours a day and can be activated by the push of a button, but also includes a two-way voice communication option.

“Closed-circuit monitoring of homes has become very popular,” said Donat.

He said they are installing camera systems for clients to watch their property remotely via the Internet more and more. Customers may want to simply keep an eye on their boat while docked behind their house, or they may want to watch over their pets or children while on vacation far away. Most systems range from one to 10 cameras placed throughout the home and property, but can be tailored to whatever needs you may have.

“Commercial systems are still our primary closed-circuit customers, but residential requests are growing rapidly,” noted Donat.

Habitec Security is located at 1520 Bridge St., Charlevoix. Hours are 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday with evening and weekend appointments available.

For more information, call (231) 582-5660 or visit www.habitecsecurity.com.

Copyright © 2010, Petoskey News

Security Distributing and Marketing Magazine (SDM), the security industry’s leading trade publication, recently released their annual list of the largest security companies in the country and named Habitec Security the largest independent security company in Ohio. SDM also ranked Habitec as the 59th largest security company in the United States.

Habitec Security was founded by Jim Smythe in 1972, he built it from a home based business started in his mother’s dining room to a very successful operation with 2 offices in Ohio and one in Michigan. Mr. Smythe passed away in June of 2006, his son John has taken on the responsibility as president and is moving the company forward. Habitec is the only security company serving northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan with a local Toledo based monitoring station.

Habitec Security employs 85 people, many whom have been with the company for more than 30 years. Habitec Security has nearly 13,000 monthly subscribers and is increasing business each year. The company will soon be offering a medical alert device that promotes independent living for the elderly or other family medical concerns. For more information please log onto www.habitecsecurity.com

Click here to view the top 100 security companies ranked by SDM.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Habitec Security, which calls itself the largest independent dealer in Ohio, this week acquired Citizen Security Systems of Carlton, Mich.

“It’s a small company in southeast Michigan that’s been in business for ten years and has a couple hundred account base,” said John Smythe, president of Habitec.

Chris Ruelle, the former president of Citizen Security, has joined Habitec as a sales consultant. Habitec is in the process of transferring all monitored alarm systems to its monitoring station here.

Habitec has about 13,000 accounts and is roughly half residential and half commercial. It has 90 employees and two branch offices, in Traverse City, Mich., and Columbus, Ohio. The company was founded by Smythe’s father, Jim Smythe, in 1972. John Smythe took over as president after his father passed away five years ago.

Smythe said the company’s made about 100 acquisitions over the years, including five since he took over.

While Habitec’s commercial business has slowed considerably in 2009, its residential business has done very well. “Our security systems installations on an annual basis was up more than 15 percent,” Smythe said. “And our cancellations stayed low.”

And for 2010? “We expect small [overall] growth again,” he said. “While the margins on commercial are thin, we’re finally starting to see some jobs close in the initial part of this year. We’ve won some bids and we weren’t the lowest bidder. They were sold, instead, on our company.”

Smythe said he’s had valued guidance over the past five years from some veteran alarm company owners who serve on his board including Mel Mahler of ADS, and John Bourque of HB Alarm. Mahler and Bourque were close friends of Smythe’s father, and they’re all Honeywell First Alert Professional dealers.

At the most recent First Alert Professional conference, Smythe gave some guidance to other FAP dealers in a seminar on Internet marketing, something he’s a big proponent of.

“We’re doing a lot more of that than we used to,” he said. Through search optimization on his site, Google ads and Google click campaigns he’s “generating way more leads than through other means … we get five to six leads a day through the Internet marketing, which is a lot for us.”

Chris Ruelle, President of Citizen Security, will be joining Habitec Security as a full time security consultant. Citizen Security Systems will be assuming the name Habitec Security. The current customers will receive the best in security protection as has been the tradition of Habitec Security since 1972. Habitec Security has had a presence in Southeastern Michigan for over 35 years and hopes that this acquisition will strengthen their position there.

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Barnhart Electric will assume the name Habitec Security. The current customers will receive the best in security protection as has been the tradition of Habitec Security since 1972. Habitec Security has had a presence in the Columbus area for 25 years and hopes that this acquisition will strengthen their position there.

In order to display the Moon rock to the public Central Catholic has to follow strict security guidelines required by NASA. Habitec has been chosen as the security company to design a system that will assure NASA the Moon rock will be secure. Habitec will be installing a sophisticated digital video system which among other features will have the capability of seeing in total darkness. Along with monitored 360 degree motion detectors, NASA can be assured that the Moon rock is in good hands with Habitec.

The Habitec Heroes team walked in remembrance of the late Jim Smythe, founder of Habitec Security. Mr. Smythe lost his courageous battle with leukemia in 2006 and will always be remembered for his love of reaching out to help people in the community. This philosophy of helping others has continued and the Habitec Team has brought a generous contribution to this organization.

If you are interested in joining us in the Light The Night Walk, please contact us.