How long has an AV integrator been operating, and does it matter?

The age of the company on its own does not predict delivery quality. What matters is continuity of personnel, repeat-client percentage and whether the business has survived a couple of cycles intact. A 3-year-old integrator built around engineers with 20 years of accumulated experience is often a better bet than a 30-year-old shop where the senior team left 18 months ago.

The metrics worth asking about, in order of usefulness:

• Average engineer tenure. A senior install or programming engineer typically takes 5 to 7 years to become genuinely capable across the major platforms. An integrator where the average engineer tenure is under 2 years is rebuilding capability constantly, and your project will reflect that. Aim for an average tenure of 5+ years on the technical team, with named individuals at 10+.
• Repeat-client percentage. What share of revenue this year came from clients who also engaged last year? Healthy is 50 to 70%. Below 30% suggests a churn problem. Above 80% can indicate a comfort zone but is rarely a delivery red flag.
• Survival through a cycle. The 2020 to 2022 hybrid working surge tested every AV integrator. Some doubled, some collapsed under their own backlog, and some were acquired and reorganised twice. Ask what happened to the team between 2020 and 2022, and what changed. The answers tell you whether the business is structurally stable or just currently busy.
• Project continuity. Of the last 10 projects of comparable scale, how many were delivered by the same project manager, design lead and commissioning engineer who started them? An integrator that swaps people mid-project is not necessarily failing, but it is a friction signal.

Company age is a reasonable filter at the extremes (under 18 months is genuinely risky for a six-figure project) but a poor signal in the middle of the range. The 12-year-old shop is not 4 times better than the 3-year-old. Ask about the people, not the letterhead. For the underlying provenance, see the about page, and for the procurement framework, the consultation and design service.

Quick reference: 5+ year average engineer tenure, 50 to 70% repeat-client revenue, intact senior team through 2020 to 2022, project continuity across recent jobs of comparable scale.