VPS Holdings Limited- Experts & Thought Leaders

Port Glasgow-based site security firm Safer Scotland has secured its first international partnership deal amid substantial business growth and rebranded as Safer Group. Founded in 2016 by Greenock entrepreneur Ryan Clark, the business specialises in protecting construction sites, infrastructure, and assets with its high-tech intruder detection system, known as Safer Pod. Safer Pod S1 intruder detection system The business has grown strongly since its inception roughly doubling in size every 18 months. It has recorded its best year to date, which saw annual turnover soar from £5m to £12m and staff headcount exceed 60. “Our growth over the past year has been largely due to the launch of our Safer Pod S1 intruder detection system,” said CEO Ryan Clark. “We’ve built and deployed 1000 units in the past 12 months. In all my years working in security, I’ve never known a product to be adopted so quickly." International partnership Our first international partnership, with VPS Group, will bring our pods to new markets in France, Germany, and Spain" “This success led us directly to our first international partnership, with VPS Group, which will bring our pods to new markets in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands, as well as the rest of the UK." “In addition, our framework deal with infrastructure group Balfour Beatty agreed in June 2022, has also contributed to this year’s achievements.” Additional property The company’s rapid growth trajectory has seen it outgrow its current HQ at Kelburn Business Park, Port Glasgow, and its sales and marketing office in Paisley. Clark recently doubled the firm’s footprint by signing a lease on a second 6,000 sq ft unit at the Inverclyde industrial estate.  “This additional property will become a home for our support staff, allowing our current unit to become a dedicated research and testing facility for our new products,” he explained. “As the team grows further, I hope to be able to recruit locally wherever possible to give the Inverclyde jobs market a boost.” Improving opportunities for local people Clark has further ambitions for the company, which prompted the rebrand to Safer Group A Greenock resident, Clark is passionate about improving opportunities for local people and sponsors several young sportspeople and clubs, including MMA fighter Reece McEwan, Greenock Boxing Club, Greenock Juniors FC, and the local Jiu-Jitzu club. Clark has further ambitions for the company, which prompted the rebrand to Safer Group. “When we started seven years ago as a small security equipment hire business, ‘Safer Scotland’ reflected our local emphasis,” he explained. Next goal “But as we branch out into new markets across the UK and internationally via our new partnership with VPS Group, it is time to change our focus."  “Our next goal is to partner with more organisations internationally and keep growing, the USA would be the dream market for us to crack next.”

The fes­tive peri­od in the UK tra­di­tion­al­ly sees a sig­nif­i­cant rise in crime, with atten­tion focused on construc­tion sites dur­ing their exten­sive close­down, leav­ing high-val­ue plant, equip­ment, fuel and materi­als as unat­tend­ed, attrac­tive tar­gets. Vacant ware­hous­es, retail units, and oth­er com­mer­cial premis­es are also like­ly tar­gets for organ­is­ers of unlicenced music events – ille­gal raves – and squatters. The Char­tered Insti­tute of Building’s research found 92% of con­struc­tion sites expe­ri­enced theft reg­u­larly, and a sur­vey by pro­tec­tion experts The VPS Group indi­cat­ed that over 1 in 5 sites expe­ri­ence theft or van­dal­ism weekly.  Exter­nal pow­er sources Paul Corten, Sales Direc­tor for The VPS Group, said: “Past Christ­mas’ have seen a sig­nif­i­cant spike in thefts over the sea­son­al peri­od, but the secu­ri­ty indus­try is brac­ing itself for one of the most chal­leng­ing month’s ever as the impact of the pan­dem­ic, bank­rupt­cies and a loom­ing reces­sion com­bine to fuel a record lev­el of crim­i­nal activity.” Mobile CCTV tow­ers are also pop­u­lar because they can be rapid­ly deployed into differ­ent loca­tions Prop­er­ties with­out secu­ri­ty are up to five times more like­ly to be affect­ed, and vacant prop­er­ties and emp­ty sites in par­tic­u­lar, are prime tar­gets for thieves and trespassers. Because con­struc­tion sites and vacant prop­er­ties may have pow­er util­i­ties switched off over the seasonal peri­od, spe­cial­ist ​‘stand-alone’ alarm and CCTV sys­tems are rec­om­mend­ed, as they do not require exter­nal pow­er sources. Mobile CCTV tow­ers are also pop­u­lar because they can be rapid­ly deployed, and eas­i­ly moved into differ­ent loca­tions to ensure good cov­er­age of the areas need­ing pro­tec­tion. Video mon­i­tor­ing cen­tre They can be linked wireless­ly to var­i­ous heat and move­ment detec­tors and to each oth­er to pro­vide a net­work of ​‘eyes’ that can be mon­i­tored from a remote 24⁄7 video mon­i­tor­ing cen­tre over the holidays. Sim­i­lar­ly, more sophis­ti­cat­ed intrud­er alarm sys­tems have spe­cial­ist soft­ware ana­lyt­ics that sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the num­ber of false alarms.  Site and facil­i­ties man­agers should car­ry out perime­ter checks, ensure valu­able plant, met­als, or fuels are either removed or kept secured and out of sight. They could also call in an expert eye to car­ry out a secu­ri­ty risk assess­ment this week. ​“There’s still just time to assess require­ments and for the fast deploy­ment of extra secu­ri­ty mea­sures, that will save the post-hol­i­day headaches from crim­i­nal activity.” said VPS’ Paul Corten.

The VPS Group continues fight against climate change expanding its range of sustainable low-carbon CCTV security options. Once the vac­ci­na­tion pro­gramme starts to help over­come the pan­dem­ic, combatting cli­mate cat­a­stro­phe and its irre­versible changes to the earth­’s cli­mate sys­tems will remain the great­est glob­al priority. VPS has been devel­op­ing and pilot­ing more diverse options to pow­er their CCTV Smart Tow­er range, used wide­ly in the hos­pi­tal­i­ty, retail and high­ways sec­tors where inde­pen­dent­ly pow­ered secu­ri­ty cameras are most need­ed. They deploy UK and Europe’s largest stock of CCTV Smart Tow­ers with thousands of cam­eras in operation. Suc­cess­ful pilot scheme Last sum­mer VPS ran a suc­cess­ful pilot scheme to sup­port a high­way safe­ty mon­i­tor­ing project using Smart Tow­ers with ultra-low wattage solar pan­els in a hybrid solu­tion, util­is­ing methanol and hydro­gen fuel cell bat­ter­ies in com­bi­na­tion. The CCTV pro­vid­ed ful­ly autonomous 24⁄7 secu­ri­ty and mon­i­tor­ing solu­tions requir­ing no exter­nal pow­er sources. Last sum­mer VPS ran a suc­cess­ful pilot scheme to sup­port a high­way safe­ty mon­i­tor­ing project “We see address­ing cli­mate change as a key growth dri­ver, as our cus­tomers want a sus­tain­able ser­vice includ­ed in their secu­ri­ty or safe­ty pro­vi­sion.” Explains Ewen Tyson, Head of VPS Site Secu­ri­ty Operations. ​“So, as well as the low-car­bon, sus­tain­able options of hydro­gen and methanol ener­gy fuel cells, we’re extend­ing the options hav­ing suc­cess­ful­ly tri­alled the use of solar pan­els. Our aim is to dri­ve down the Tow­er pow­er use.” Zero car­bon world The com­mon­ly used sus­tain­able option of hydro­gen fuel cells emit just water and enable Smart Tow­ers to oper­ate with­out an exter­nal pow­er supply. Because VPS oper­ates across Europe, it has kept up-to-date with the dif­fer­ences in oth­er coun­tries’ approach to select­ing green­er ener­gy options. Ger­many, for exam­ple, focus­es on ammo­nia and methanol to deliv­er hydro­gen as a clean-burn­ing fuel for indus­tries. The UK gov­ern­ment sees hydro­gen as cen­tral to get­ting to a net-zero car­bon world by 2050, to the extent that devel­op­ment of Europe’s first two hydro­gen pro­duc­tion plants is set to be sub­sidised by the gov­ern­ment as part of a £90m fund­ing dri­ve to accel­er­ate the coun­try’s tran­si­tion to low-car­bon energy. “We’re expand­ing our devel­op­ment of sus­tain­able secu­ri­ty and CCTV mon­i­tor­ing not just to meet the demand and there­fore tak­ing up the busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ty, but also because repair­ing the earth­’s environ­ment has height­ened focus on sus­tain­able mea­sures.” con­clud­ed Ewen

As the deal/no deal prospects of Brexit are tossed in a whirlwind of UK and EU politics, the uncertainty of the back-and-forth has broadly impacted general economic trends, and by extension, the physical security market. The new deadline for a Brexit agreement is October 31, already postponed six months from the scheduled April 12 departure date. Numbers show that Britain’s GDP shrank in the second quarter, possibly reflecting fewer exports because of Brexit uncertainty. And beyond the current indecision lies the long-term impact of a possible change in trading status between the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Other issues include capital flow and labor mobility. Brexit uncertainty leading to security concerns Loss of shared information with the EU will make the UK less safe “Companies … are unclear about their future,” comments Martin Warren of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. “Companies are making decisions now about jobs, supply chains, headquarters and asset locations, incurring significant, and possibly unnecessary, cost and upheaval.” Warren fears the destructive effects of a ‘no deal’ outcome and hopes politicians will break the deadlock and restore business confidence. Security implications of Brexit extend beyond economics. Loss of shared information with the EU will make the UK less safe. Extradition across EU borders will be more difficult, and exchange of data such as fingerprints and vehicle registrations is at risk. The Irish border after Brexit is of particular concern to security professionals. Countering threat of international terrorism Robert Hall of London First and Alison Wakefield of Security Institute say the security impact of departing the EU will be long lasting and profound. “In security terms, the UK will still have to contend with international terrorism, transnational crime and the global movement of people, all challenges that require wide scale cooperation.” They add that leaving the EU will require “a significant investment in people, resources and databases to cope with the anticipated volumes of traffic through ports, airports and tunnels.” Analyst company IHS Markit earlier commented about the impact on the security industry of Brexit’s drag on the UK economy, “Access control, intruder and fire alarm markets typically track construction rates closely and are forecast to be affected most. However, a large cut to infrastructure spending would be just as damaging to the video surveillance market.” UK security companies prefer ‘soft exit’ from EU If a ‘soft exit’ trade deal is not negotiated, the UK would have to revert to WTO trade rules If a ‘soft exit’ trade deal is not negotiated, the UK would have to revert to World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade rules, which means tariffs on trade between the UK and the EU, says IHS Markit. There are five British-based access-control and intruder-alarm vendors supplying the European market in significant quantity – each with revenue exceeding $10 million. IHS Markit estimates these companies combined account for less than 10 percent of total European, Middle-Eastern and African (EMEA) market revenues for both industries.  Uncertain future of UK security marketplace Asset protection specialist VPS Security Services has warned that the ongoing Brexit saga will likely lead to a rise in vacant commercial and residential properties as developers and investors are more reluctant to move forward with their UK real estate strategies. Seemingly endless machinations and shifting proposals are making the eventual outcome of Brexit very much a guessing game. Uncertainty translates into a volatile and changing outlook, and the eventual impact on the broader economy is an open question. As a reflection of that economy, the security marketplace will inevitably feel the economic impact, too, not to mention the new security challenges likely to ensue.