The acquisition of the multi-national firm Stanley Security by Securitas is ‘transformative’, says Securitas President and CEO Magnus Ahlqvist, pictured, in the security company’s 2021 annual report. The ‘integration and value creation planning’ have started and are well on track, he says.
He says: “When Stanley is integrated and the transformation programs are fully implemented, we will have built a new Securitas – a modern, digitised and innovative security solutions partner for our clients with a structurally higher margin profile.”
The buying of Stanley is of a piece with Securitas’ move for several years away from purely manned guarding, bringing lower margins, towards more use of monitoring and other technology; or as the report put it, making Securitas an ‘intelligent security solutions partner with over 50 percent of profit generated from high-margin electronic security and solutions sales’.
The firm had in 2021 an operating margin of 5.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2021, compared with 5.3pc one year before. The Security Services Europe arm of the Swedish company did markedly better than in 2020, with organic sales growth of 5pc in the last quarter of the year, and in 2021 as a whole, in contrast to a sales decline of minus two per cent in 2020. The North American arm of the firm saw zero sales growth; the firm pointed to coronavirus (including electronic security installations affected by global ‘supply chain issues’) and ‘previously announced contract losses’, such as an airport security contract in Hawaii.
In Europe, the operating margin in the last quarter of 2021 rose from 6pc to 6.3pc; although that recovery from 2020 lockdown in the continent was mainly driven by the Nordic countries and Turkey. The firm said that in Europe it’s ‘continuing to review the airport security contract portfolio’, much hit by the covid pandemic.
The company’s Ibero-America arm covers South America and Portugal and Spain; it saw organic sales growth of 11 per cent in the last quarter of 2021, compared with a fall of one per cent one year before.
Securitas and Stanley made their agreement in December. The Securitas report commented: “The future of security is built around the combination of global presence, connected technology and intelligent use of data and, together with Stanley Security, Securitas is perfectly placed to win in this environment with an outstanding offering and client experience.”
