The last time we talked to DoorBird, the IP doorstation specialist had recently expanded its North American offices from San Francisco to add an East Coast base in Jacksonville, Fla., where Justin Clark heads up sales for the Americas, Australia & New Zealand, and assists dealers in various ways.
He rejoins the podcast with even more to discuss this time around. During this week’s CE Pro Podcast episode, Clark updates the custom integration channel by discussing DoorBird’s presence at this year’s International Builders’ Show and ISC West events; how last year’s acquisition by security giant ASSA ABLOY is impacting R&D; the growing multidwelling/multitenant unit (MDU) market potential; CEDIA Expo plans; and much more.
The latter months of 2022 and the first half of 2023 have been an exciting time for the custom integration- and design-friendly company. ASSA ABLOY, the Swedish conglomerate that owns an array of adjacent smart home, smart locks and security brands, added DoorBird to its portfolio last October. The acquisition has boosted the brand’s capabilities and market potential, Clark notes in the podcast.
Among DoorBird’s expanding presence in the custom integrator and security dealer channels, the company exhibited at the International Builders’ Show (IBS), co-located again this year with the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Las Vegas; as well as the major security industry expo, ISC West. Conversations with builders, designers and security integrators were highly productive, Clark mentions.
“The builder market is a market we’ve been on the fringes but are going deeper and deeper into,” he says of the February tradeshow. “What’s cool about that market is that the aesthetics of our products really lend to that custom homebuilder – not putting something on the front entry that functions, but functions and actually looks really good. So that was a nice conversation to have there.
“It was also nice to look at some of our products being installed in home automation platforms, so you get to see what that integration with DoorBird and another manufacturer looks like,” Clark adds. “So again that’s a market we are focused on, and IBS is a great show and we’d love to do more.”
DoorBird Dealers Poised for Myriad MDU Possibilities & More
On the security-specific show floor at ISC West, the discussions with security and smart home integrators not only continued regarding the builder market, but addressed increasingly attractive opportunities in the MDU space.
Whether it’s entryways, gates or other placement, the customizable and easy-to-configure DoorBird solutions can help expand dealers’ business or get an integrator’s foot in the door (sorry, pun intended) with those property developers and their tenants.
Plus, the backing of a big company such as ASSA ABLOY has enabled DoorBird to have the technical resources, sales & marketing support and R&D to better equip itself and its dealers to specialize in a vertical such as MDUs.
“You take a smaller company like DoorBird, yeah we have a global scope but we still run very lean and when it comes to development of products and new features sometimes we can be a little slower than we want to be to the market,” Clark explains. “But now, with a little more muscle behind us, it’s something we’re super excited about.”
Watch the video or download the audio podcast above to hear much more from Clark about why DoorBird, its dealers and the custom industry have great reasons to be excited about the rest of 2023 – including the company’s presence at CEDIA Expo and new co-located Commercial Integrator Expo this September in Denver.
Find past episodes of the CE Pro Podcast by subscribing to the CE Pro YouTube channel or our Apple and Spotify podcast feeds.