Following a period of investment in its commercial department and supporting structure, Trigion has reported a largely stable turnover for the past fiscal year as it gears up for accelerated growth in 2017. Manned security and the electronic security both maintained previous margin levels, but a change in the proportion of turnover in favour of the electronics division has led to a 39 per cent improvement in Trigion’s operating margin.
Increasing demand of electronic security
The security industry is seeing a continuing trend away from manned security towards electronics or a combination of the two. Trigion offers all security services in-house and has its own control centre. It has also developed a consultative approach to ensure a solution designed to meet the client’s individual needs, and combining all relevant security elements, is developed. This means the client receives increased security at a reduced rate. In addition, a new financial model means they can see a return on investment from the first day without the need to apply for capital expenditure.
Jan-Hein Hemke, Trigion’s Managing Director, said, “We are looking to accelerate our growth in the coming years and have made substantial investments in our commercial department and supporting structure to help achieve this. We have also refreshed our service offering. We believe these actions should lead to a substantial growth in 2017.”
Downward trend of manned guarding
The development of the National Living Wage (NLW) has had a significant influence on the security industry. In the period from October 2015 to April 2016, the NLW went up by 10.7%. The outlook for the coming years is considerable further increases in the pay rates. Trigon remains a strong supporter of the Living Wage Foundation. It believes the trend in wage rates is desirable from a social point of view. However, it also feels that the increase in cost of labour will further increase the move from manned security to electronic security.
Despite the trend towards reduced manned guarding, Jan-Hein stressed, “Well skilled and highly competent colleagues remain important in our desire to be client focused and act as a professional partner to our clients. We have a strong focus on training and development.”
26 Apr 2017