YARMOUTH, Maine—A chance first-time meeting in Las Vegas led to John Loud adding not only a new company to his LOUD Security portfolio, but also a respected industry veteran with a focus on the commercial side of the business. Loud met Mike Sandes, who was serving as CEO of Vytis Security Systems, while standing in a cab line in Las Vegas to head to ISC West in April. “The ironic part is, Mike and I have just never met throughout all the years I've known of him,” Loud said. “I had high regard and respect for him, watched him from afar, but have just never met him. Eric Widner, my general manager, and I flew out to Vegas on the morning of April 8, and guess who ends up in line right behind us for a taxi?” Loud knew of Sandes’ success as president of Ackerman Security’s Commercial Division, a division that Sandes started up in 2002 with the company being primarily a residential-based business at the time. Sandes held that position at Ackerman for more than 18 years before ADT acquired its assets in 2021. He became chief revenue officer (CRO) at EyeQ Monitoring before creating Atlanta-based commercial technologies and solutions provider Vytis Security Systems in October 2022. Loud and Sandes resumed their discussions after returning from ISC West, and finally, a deal was made in June for LOUD Security to acquire Vytis and bring onboard Sandes as vice president of commercial services. LOUD Security’s business is currently about 40% commercial, and adding someone of Sandes’ caliber and his extensive commercial background will only help that side of the business grow. “It’s a matter now of how you invest and focus and grow even further,” Loud said. “Having someone like Mike coming in as a VP for us, it’s about investing in and homing in on that focus. The biggest challenge all our businesses have is about top talent, and when you're able to find the top talent of someone like a Mike Sandes, it's a vital, critical piece of that infrastructure.” Loud, who just wrapped up his term as Electronic Security Association (ESA) chairman, noted that as he focuses more on LOUD Security going forward, growing the commercial side of the business and increasing EBITDA will be key for him. “When you look at the marketplace today, it is really about the commercial enterprises and EBITDA that is the ultimate focus,” he explained. “For 29-plus years, it's been a lot of RMR focus along the way. Now we've always had commercial sales and commercial customers, but we typically had three commercial sales reps, so it's a piece of our puzzle. Now it's going to be something we're going to invest in much more vigorously and have a far greater focus and drive to reenergize within the corporate commercial realm.”
