Daphne Du Preez, National Sales & Marketing Manager for G4S Secure Solutions (South Africa) talks about the challenge of fly-by-night operators and how SA’s security sector is evolving.

By Ian Armitage


G4S is the global leader in providing integrated security solutions and the London- and Denmark-listed business has the biggest private sector workforce in the world, after Wal-Mart, the U.S. grocer.

In South Africa, G4S can boast the most comprehensive national footprint, with a strong presence in all nine provinces. Its service offering includes security officers, security systems including CCTV, vehicle tracking, remote off-site monitoring, specialised services, including aviation security, and cash management solutions.

It has undergone massive growth, both organically and through acquisitions.

“The group’s financial position continues to be strong and despite continued challenging market conditions, the business has performed well,” says Daphne Du Preez, National Sales & Marketing Manager, G4S Secure Solutions (South Africa). “G4S is on target to achieve budget for 2010. Our new market businesses, which now account for more than a third of group profits, continue to achieve strong results. These factors combined with our strategy to deliver integrated security solutions give us confidence that we will sustain good progress into the next year. A number of South African hospitality businesses were disappointed with their net gains from the 2010 World Cup, but G4S is pleased with the additional revenue this event generated for our business stream. In line with our group strategy, G4S SA enjoyed growth in the technology and specialised services side of the business this year.”

According to Ms Du Preez, the global recession has had an impact on every facet of industry, least not security, and it has resulted in below expected organic growth within the group.

Despite that, in the first nine months of 2010, overall group revenues grew by almost six percent at actual exchange rates, compared to the same period last year.

South Africa, she adds, is a tough place to do business, especially where manned guarding is concerned. There are many “fly-by-night” security companies who can offer low prices simply because they do not have the overheads that a large corporation incurs. These smaller companies, however, are often unable to provide the level of training, expertise, professionalism and even insurance liability that the larger companies do.

“The manned guarding sector remains a low barrier of entry to market, so the country is flooded with over 5,000 registered, but unregulated competitors,” Ms Du Preez explains. “Most traditional manned guarding companies are, at present, attempting (most, unsuccessfully) to offer technology solutions to bolster profits and enhance the value they add to the customer.

“Non-compliance remains the biggest challenge and threat to the integrity of the SA security market,” she continues. “It is difficult to stop the fly-by-night operators, who in almost all instances are non-compliant with regulatory and statutory requirements.

“Through SIA, together with business, organised labour, such as Cosatu, Fedusa, Nactu and Government, there is a formal and strategic approach to remedy this age old issue.”

One difficulty is that consumers are unable to make an informed decision about what security measures are right for them.

“The systems market is dynamic, state-of-the-art and ever changing, which creates uncertainty for some customers on how to make informed decisions on expensive solutions,” Ms Du Preez says. “Our challenge is to consult and educate the customer by providing him with a solution his organisation really needs, not what we think it needs.

“The SA market is slowly moving towards the acceptance of the role technology solutions play within their risk environment.”

Life in South Africa is tough. The rainbow nation suffers from one of the world’s highest crime rates. This isn’t lost on G4S or Du Preez. But it is a growth market.

“The industry has an estimated spend of R55 billion per annum and is still growing,” says Ms Du Preez. “This sum is comprised of manned guarding services, systems solutions, which include CCTV and access control, as well as alarm monitoring and response and cash in transit services.

“In terms of market trends, what we are seeing a move -- a slow move -- towards having fewer security guards, but who are highly trained and up-skilled, complimented by an effective security technology system.”

G4S has undoubted strength in diversity and continues to grow its service offering. It has moved from selling single service products to bundled products in the form of integrated service offerings that are specialised. “The recent acquisition of Skycom demonstrates our move towards building capacity and capability to provide theses specialized services across all sectors,” Ms Du Preez says.

In the future, G4S sees fewer, but more compliant security companies operating in the market, offering a full range of security products and solutions on a more ‘consultative approach’ basis with the view to creating long-term partnerships. “Customers are looking for one company to provide all their requirements,” she says. “This will create a’ lock-in’ scenario between customer and supplier, making it difficult for the customer to move from supplier to supplier.

“Our organisation subscribes to the philosophy of adding value to our customers,” Ms Du Preez adds. “G4S takes the time to understand our customer’s needs and strives to design customised integrated solutions to meet each customer’s unique requirements. We encourage the development of service level agreements, which are quantifiable and measurable and are punitive financially, if G4S performs below expected levels.

“Our global reputation, strong brand, international experience and local expertise, provides additional peace of mind and value add to all our customers.”

Concluding, Du Preez says that what sets G4S apart from the competition is that each and every employee lives the G4S Values, while integrity and passion run throughout the company.

“We recruit only the best. Customer satisfaction is our core focus.”

As the old adage goes, you get what you pay for.



South Africa Magazine, Issue 9