Challenges Facing Security Companies in 2016 — Trend #3 Loss of Margin for Manned Guarding

Continuing my series of short posts on the results of The Organised Cleaning Company’s research report “Challenges facing Security Companies in 2016”, this post looks at how commoditisation of manned guarding and the impact of FM companies offering security is affecting margins.

Margin erosion due to commoditisation

A round table event organised by Incentive FM Group in February 2015, which included representatives from Lynx Security, Axis Security and Emprise, addressed the issue of margin erosion for manned security services. The general consensus was that low margins are now the norm in the industry, with prices having fallen steadily for many years.

It was also agreed that the margins issue has not been helped by FM companies offering manned guarding and other security services with an extremely low (or zero) margin so that they can get other elements of the client’s operation such as M&E, which attracts a much higher margin.

If you’d like a copy of The Organised Cleaning Company full research report entitled “Challenges facing Security Companies in 2016” please tweet me (Matt Harris) or email me at matt@organisedcleaning.com with your contact details.