A new research from Mintel and being marketed by the NSI, has forecast the Manned Security sector will be worth over £4 billion in 2016. Intense price competition over the past five years in the sector has been exacerbated by generally weak demand, and depressing overall revenues. According to the report, real term growth of 6%pa is forecast for both 2015 and 2016 and will be driven almost exclusively by the prison and custodial services sector, with new probation contracts anticipated mostly in favour of the largest operators.
Terry Leggett, Senior Industrial Analyst at Mintel, comments: “Projected growth in the manned security market is highly dependent on the public sector outsourcing climate. This forecast expansion is expected to be biased towards a small number of companies, masking continued difficulties for small and medium-sized businesses in the guarding sector. These companies can increase commercial opportunities by marketing the specialist nature of their services, building partnerships with electronic systems manufacturers and looking to develop deep customer relationships that differentiate them from larger multi-service brands.
Building additional business services beyond just guarding or supervision, which exploit the intelligence gathered from integrated electronic system solutions, could also improve sales as the facilities management sector increasingly eats into specialist firms’ contract revenues. Amongst SMEs, NSI Guarding Gold approved companies who demonstrate commitment to integrity, competence and professionalism in addition to SIA Approved Contractor Scheme status, stand out as leaders in their sector.
