Guarding

Securitas report

by Mark Rowe

Integrating on-site, remote and mobile guarding services is the aim for Securitas, the company’s president and Chief Executive Officer Alf Goransson has written in the 2013 annual report.

He said: “Organic sales growth was 1 percent and reflected the challenging macro-economic situation prevailing in the USA and Europe, affecting especially the security markets in France, Portugal and Spain. Fragile signs of macro-economic recovery in Europe and the USA have not yet been reflected in security market growth. Latin America continued to show strong organic sales growth.”

As a clue to the scale of the economic slump in the Euro-zone, Goransson spoke of traditional guarding contracts being sold at a loss in Spain and Portugal.

Goransson said: “We also believe that today’s slower sales growth rate in the security market could be accelerated by outsourcing more of insourced security services as the role of technology becomes more important in enhancing security levels and lower the costs. Sales growth could also be improved by expanding the security market and enabling the private security industry, to a larger extent, to take over the services currently performed by authorities, governments and other entities in the public sector.”

Security solutions and technology accounted
for 6 percent of the company’s total sales in 2012. Securitas has set a target to triple this figure by year-end 2015.

According to the 2013 report, the security industry is undergoing the most exciting change it has faced for a long time, as traditional guarding is gradually, but increasingly, being transformed.

Historically, according to the firm, the security market has grown 1–2 per cent faster than GDP in mature markets (North America and Europe). However, this is no longer true, the company adds. Given market dynamics and the gradual use of technology in security, security markets in Europe and North America are not growing 1–2 percent faster than GDP, but rather at the same pace as GDP. This trend is expected to continue and means that guarding services will no longer be confined to on-site security officers – guarding will also be performed by mobile patrols or remotely, the company argues.

Last year, according to Goransson, the entire company went through ‘extensive training’ in Securitas values and ethics. A Securitas Integrity Line has now been set up in 49 of the countries the multi-national operates in.

Some figures

The global security services sector employs several million people and the global market for private guard services is projected to reach US 110 billion dollars by 2016. The European security services market accounts for almost 29 percent of the global security services market, and the total size of outsourced guarding is US 28 billion dollars. Securitas is represented in 28 European countries. In most of these countries, as the largest or the second-largest market player. The company’s Security Services Europe arm has 117,000 employees and 800 branch managers. Security Services North America and Security Services Europe represent 85 percent of total business, and 221,000 of the firm’s nearly 310,000 staff.

For the full 136-page 2013 report visit http://www.securitas.com/Global/_DotCom/Annual%20reports/Annual_Report_2013_links.pdf

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