INDUSTRY FOCUS: SECURITY

He tells Enterprise Africa that transparency, accountability, and ethics are crucial in the security industry, and GardaWorld Africa is built on these principles. This has allowed the company to pick up major clients and establish an industry-leading position across a number of markets.

“Until we entered the African market, there was only one meaningful international player in security services provision. We made a strategic play to enter sub-Saharan Africa by acquiring KK Security in 2016. It was headquartered out of Nairobi and was operating in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. With that, we took on around 40,000 people as the number one or two player in each of those markets, and that is what we have been building on,” he says.

“The big picture is about differentiating ourselves from the competition – we need to play to our strengths. Quality of service is definitely a part of that. Calibre of management, quality systems, accountability, culture in terms of operating a business to international standards is something very few businesses demonstrate in the African market. Being able to do that on an integrated, multi-geographic scale - while bringing ISO and wider best practice certification – requires a significant amount of commitment and work.” remain attractive and competitive. For international players looking to support big-name clients and projects, there are chances for prosperity – if the fundamentals are in place.

In 2000, a collection of extractive companies created the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights to assist companies in development of a clear and structure framework around ethical best practice. Since then, the KPI-based system has been reviewed, upgraded, updated, and refined and has become a global quality standard, with the encouragement of governments around the world. Now recognised as the ISO 18788 certification, this framework can assist global security companies when growing business in new markets.

“It mandates a very high level of compliancy and provision of audited best practice standards,” says Oliver Westmacott, President and Chief Operating Officer, GardaWorld Security-International. “That is what we have been at the forefront of and, across all of our business, we certify to these standards. For me, bringing this necessary function to scale, at a global level – particularly in emerging markets – is essential.”

Globally, GardaWorld is headquartered from Montreal, and provides integrated security offerings to organisations all over the world, recognised for its delivery superiority.

Making A Difference

On the ground, GardaWorld Africa has a formidable presence. A large manned guarding operation is complemented by K9 units, journey management, facilities management, command centres with dedicated response teams, and a comprehensive technology portfolio provide real risk mitigation.

Recently, GardaWorld staff in the diplomatic quarter of Dar es

Salaam identified and neutralised a threat from a rogue gunman without major incident. Working alongside local police, the team apprehended the individual before damage was done. The area was nervous following a fatal shooting in 2021.

“There are many examples of our team diffusing high-pressure situations and deescalating tense environments where there has been a real likelihood of people attacking key infrastructure or putting clients at risk. We are also regularly intercepting robberies,” says Westmacott.

Clients include UN Agencies, more than 120 international embassies across Africa, substantial agriculture players, oil and gas and energy giants as well as their value chain partners, mining organisations, governments, and more.

East Africa is where GardaWorld has grown from. Whilst Kenya and Tanzania are exciting markets, Nigeria, Mozambique, and the DRC are all seeing significant growth, along with several other geographies where the company commands a strong position. For Westmacott - an industry veteran with more than two decades in security across a multitude of developing markets – the way the business can make a difference and realise its true potential is through genuine and authentic value-adding activity.

“It’s about refining our offering,” he says. “We don’t want to have an ego around how many people we have – we shouldn’t care. We should be talking about our convictions and the quality of service we deliver, and the profitability of the business. Ultimately, we can be a better business by broadening our service provision and focusing on a more holistic risk management approach to clients. The race to the bottom, competing only on price, is a very dangerous way to build a business – you’re not creating long term value for either clients or shareholders by doing that.”

An industry trend when hunting for efficiency and profitability is increasing technology rollout and focusing on the labour component providing better operational value to clients.

“Technology is essential, but not so much just cameras on your gates –which is increasingly commoditised. We need to be driving integration of technology in a sophisticated way and the crux of that is to have a deep engagement with clients to understand what their broader risk requirements are,” he explains. “Whether you are producing tea or pulling cobalt out of the ground, those operations have risks. Some of it is protection of a gate or warehouse, but it is also monitoring manpower, ghost workers, payroll, theft from production lines, systems being manipulated – that is internal organisation risk that, typically, operators have not put into the remit of a traditional guarding company. It is often put into an internal security or risk department and that is a big opportunity for us. We are acutely conscious of bringing technology when it adds value to people’s lives rather than using technology for technology’s sake.” This is where rivals and local players fall short. A portfolio that is simply geared for physical guarding or reselling of imported electronics is a hardware or personnel partner and not an entrenched extension of client business. GardaWorld seeks to participate in the daily operations of clients, providing solutions that ultimately improve profitability and offset cost. To gain deep and true understanding, the company invests in talent and innovative process engineering while joining everything together with a culture of quality. With operations across 45 countries around the world nurturing and maintaining a common business culture is key to delivering universal quality standards.

“We come in with a very operational mindset and utilise senior leaders in the business who have worked client-side and understand mines and manufacturing, and understand the risks and how that erodes profitability,” details Westmacott.

“We see ourselves as offering something quite different to the rest of the market. We certainly see our culture as a differentiator. Others often operate similarly to a franchise–very localised and decentralised. We are much more cohesive and structurally we have a tight leadership team that has direct oversight of all of the operations in Africa.”

Market Dynamics

Growth is on the agenda for GardaWorld Africa. But protecting profitability and creating a solutions-based business will not be overlooked as the company ventures into new geographies fraught with risk. With a number of growth strategies on the table, the company can expand in different ways but strong relationships and scalepotential are common fundamentals.

“We are very committed to Africa and anyone who goes into Africa and believes that there won’t be a steep and extended learning curve is naïve,” states Westmacott, adding that confidence in the service provision, belief in its adherence to international quality standards, and robust financial returns are vital.

“There is a lot of business in Africa that is not as profitable as it should be, it is management-intensive – with 10,000 people in Kenya, ensuring they are equipped properly and engaging correctly with clients is a massive task. You need scale but it is also about supervision ratios and processes. That is why we believe consolidating and delivering for a smaller base of strategic clients that we can bring more services to in a creative way is sensible. Working with a quality provider like GardaWorld comes with a price. Price erosion is a huge challenge in Africa and you have to have the conviction in your offering to say ‘this may cost a little more and here’s why…’.”

As the security lead for a major pipeline construction project on the continent to export oil overseas, GardaWorld was engaged by an