‘Super contractor’ heads up Infologue.com Top 20

The UK’s first ‘super contractor’ – Group 4 Securicor – duly occupies the top spot in dedicated manned security web site Infologue.com’s latest Top 20 ‘league table’ of estimated annualised turnovers in the sector. According to the Logue Corporate Services-published listings, the guarding behemoth’s estimated turnover currently stands at a massive £343,000,000 – almost double that of Reliance, its nearest competitor.

Another significant shift in power sees OCS Resolution – the company formed by the OCS Group’s buy-out of Resolution Security – move into seventh spot. “While OCS enjoyed a high business support services profile, its industry brand awareness appeared to be low,” Infologue.com’s editor Bobby Logue told SMT. “The Resolution acquisition, plus some high profile contract gains, has raised the awareness of the OCS brand significantly.”

A major deal in 2004 was the acquisition of First Security (Guards) by the AIM-listed McLennan Group, who also bought Attlaw Security and Protection in late 2003. Also on the acquisition trail was AIM-listed SectorGuard, the company buying up the contract bases of Abbot Security Services, Nationwide and Choice Security Services, in the process adding a cool £2.5 million to its annual turnover. SectorGuard continues to sit just outside the Top 20 contractors.

“The Top 20 companies are growing organically as well as through consolidation,” continued Logue. “We believe the extent of organic growth could be as much as £60 million in the past 12 months. Anecdotal evidence suggests the growth is coming through winning business from smaller service providers.”

At present, there are 2,476 contractors operational in the UK, generating a collective (estimated) annualised turnover of £2.1 billion. Consolidation in 2004 increased the annual turnover base of the Infologue.com Top 20 by an estimated £142 million. That consolidation will continue throughout 2005.