This issue holds our seventh annual “Companies to Watch” feature, and since the story itself is both nostalgic and future-facing, I thought it would be interesting to look back at previous editions to see if they had any industry trends to reveal.
I primarily looked at the number of entries, which, yes, meant I went back and physically counted the number of companies and associations in each one. You can double-check me if you want, but the reason I did it was so you don’t have to. Here are the results:
- 2018’s story had 36 companies
- 2019’s story had 47 companies
- 2020’s story had 81 companies
- 2021’s story had 88 companies
- 2022’s story had 92 companies
- 2023’s story had 116 companies
- This year’s story has 120 companies.
We can ignore 2018 altogether, as I am certain there were more than 36 notable companies to watch, but I was just a few months into this job and hadn’t yet reached full immersion into the channel, so that’s on me. 2019 was a little better, but I still had some work to do.
Maybe it was being stranded in my house for most of it, but by 2020 I was getting the hang of it, with a proper amount of companies that matched the rhythm of the channel, which continues through the current edition.
I found the steady growth to be interesting because, with all the mergers and acquisitions that have happened over the past few years, you’d think the number would go down. Indeed, as I was running through each story, counting companies, I noticed many names that are still represented on this year’s list, just as part of larger organizations now.
For all the acquisitions, the list has been bolstered by new product categories entering the industry — there are quite a few lighting and shade companies on this year’s list.
For the curious, there is no science behind the making of this list. We put a call out to the industry for success stories from the past year or a tease for the next. Those responses are combined with an annual review of all the news and product stories posted on residentialsystems.com. Not every company is mentioned, naturally, but we look for companies with several releases or at least one truly notable one.
As I was looking through seven years of these things, there were companies I was surprised were not on this year’s list, which prompted a double-check to make sure I hadn’t missed them. But R&D takes time, and I have seen companies go quiet for a time before a big announcement, and I bet they will be back next year.
Still, regardless of the number of entries, the stories they tell about the wins of this year make for an impressive roundup and confirmation that this is an amazing business to be part of.
