May
The big news of May has been an address by a charismatic leader to a large room full of important people wearing suits about his vision for the future of Britain. I refer, of course, to Peter Harrison, FGH’s Managing Director, being a guest speaker for a gathering of over 220 SIA employees at their Internal Training Seminar. Peter shared the assembly with Detective Inspector Joe McKerns, of Strathclyde Police, and led a wide ranging discussion about key issues affecting the security industry. Chief among these were a discussion of the impact of regulation on the security industry since the formation of the SIA and the need for compulsory registration by the SIA of all security companies operating in the UK. Peter believes that consultation between the SIA and leading security companies is vital to ensure the best possible future for the industry as a whole. He said “It’s great to be asked to come down here. It shows that the SIA really are interested on the views of the industry as a whole.” He also commented on the issues discussed saying “I think compulsory registration is a good idea. Companies like FGH are working in partnership with the SIA to improve the industry for everyone involved. We should not allow a few unscrupulous traders to ruin what we’ve achieved by providing poor service and reinforcing outdated stereotypes.”
April
When April arrives with its sweet showers then it is time for the annual ACS audit. Once again FGH acquitted itself admirably, retaining our Approved Contractor Status for Door Supervision and Security Guarding and improving our overall score to place us in the top 15% of ACS companies. In addition to this we were also granted ACS in two additional areas, Vehicle Immobilisation and Key Holding. We are now one of only five companies nationally to have ACS in Vehicle Immobilisation and the only one to offer this particular combination of four areas. Lancashire Operations Manager, Adam Tomlinson, said “I’m really pleased with this result. It reflects not just our commitment to the spirit of the SIA, but also the hard work put in every day by both our front line and management staff.” It is not just FGH Security that has won such accreditation, however. FGH Guardhall also had its annual visit from the National Security Inspectorate. The result of this was the renewal of FGH Guardhall’s NSI Gold status for the Alarm Receiving Centre. This is the highest award that the industry can bestow in that particular area and a sign of the ARC’s continuing levels of excellence.
March
During March things have continued to expand apace at FGH. Several new contacts have been added across all areas. FGH provided security for YP ’10, a free music festival for young people in Lancaster. This was a festival aimed at 11-17 year olds and run by the Young People’s Service. Our provision of security for live music events also extended to Burnley Music Library.
At FGH Guardhall several new company vans were purchased in order to upgrade existing systems and to meet rising demand for our services.
Door supervision services in Cumbria continued to go from strength to strength as client satisfaction remained at peak levels. Cumbria Constabulary reported a significant reduction in violent crime in Barrow-in-Furness town centre and praised FGH’s efforts in helping to bring this about. In addition to all of this we were awarded a contract for vehicle immobilisation for several sites on behalf of Blackburn with Darwen borough council and management of the car park at Lancaster City Football club. Both of these contracts are administered by Northwest Parking Solutions, our parking management company.
February
February can be a quiet time for the security industry, but not so at FGH. During this month we completed the takeover of Guardhall Security, finalising our provision of complete security solutions across all areas. With this takeover FGH is bucking the national trend. Where the recession has caused many companies to cut services and make redundancies FGH has expanded dramatically. FGH Guardhall will now become the electronic wing of FGH Security. FGH Guardhall provides a complete service for keyholding and alarm response as well as professional and affordable alarm monitoring and installation.
The jewel in the crown, however, is the state of the art Alarm Receiving Centre, one of very few NSI Gold accredited Alarm Receiving Centres in the UK. The takeover also expanded FGH’s growing security guarding division ever further, as we took over several new staff and contracts. FGH is pleased to welcome all Guardhall staff aboard and a special mention should go to John Halstead, who is staying on as FGH Guardhall’s Operations Director. For more information on FGH Guardhall see the latest edition of the FGH Chronicle or use the link from the FGH Services Page to visit FGH Guardhall’s website.
January
January is upon us. This is a time, like the roman god Janus, to look both backward and forward simultaneously. Looking back we see a successful festive period. Throughout the North West FGH provided security to dozens of commercial sites, businesses and late night venues and were at the forefront of ensuring a safe and merry Christmas and New Year for our clients and their customers alike.
Over the festive period client satisfaction remained high. Several venue managers in particular commented on the high standard of door supervision provided. While the country was crippled by snow the FGH team continued to function admirably. Client satisfaction remained a priority as the FGH Management team found themselves driving through snow covered roads on Christmas day to ensure staff could be in place on time. A special mention should also go to David Barnes, a staff member whose expertise in winter driving allowed for the smooth running of operations across much of Lancashire during the recent inclement weather.
With a new year we have also produced a new edition of the critically acclaimed FGH Chronicle. Packed with exciting articles and special offers this is the ‘must read’ feature of the festive season. The detailed provision of information in this literary masterpiece will keep you up to date with all the developments at FGH Security.
The New Year period is also a time for looking towards the future. At FGH we believe the future is bright.
2009 Summary
If possible 2009 was an even more exciting year for FGH than 2008 had been. This year saw our security guarding division more than double in size and saw several more acquisitions in the door supervision division too. FGH was also rewarded for its hard work with numerous new accreditations and with a prestigious national win in the Security Excellence Awards.
The security guarding division’s exponential growth led to the appointment of Dan Willis as Security Guarding Manager. Under his stewardship FGH acquired several major contracts including the Morecambe Bay NHS Trust and Greater Manchester Fire Service. This required an expansion of our already impressive internal training programme and a dramatic expansion of the number of our full time security guarding staff. The measures Dan put in place to accomplish this were so impressive that we were finalists for Security Guarding Company of the Year at the Security Excellence Awards 2009.
Our Door Supervision division also continued its expansion. New contracts in Manchester and Preston expanded our coverage of southern Lancashire and Greater Manchester. We also picked up several more contracts in Cumbria, most notable of these being The Roxy in Ulverston. The most significant development in this area, however, was winning the Best Practice in Door Supervision category at the Security Excellence Awards. This award made us officially the best door supervision provider in the country this year.
FGH’s constant striving towards excellence has also resulted in several new awards and accreditations. We have been awarded CHAS, a health and safety accreditation. We have also become members of the Aspire 100, an elite group of smaller security companies banding together to take on the big few.
FGH also continued its diversification and is now able to offer virtually any security based solution imaginable. Notable areas in which we began to offer provision during this year were alarm installation; CCTV monitoring and installation, and close protection.
This year has also seen expansion at our head office. We have opened our new training and conference room and are now able to provide fully in house training sessions in addition to the facility being available for other companies to hire. The FGH Chronicle has also gone from strength to strength with an estimated readership of nearly 3000. It has expanded to a regular 16 pages, although we recently released a bumper 20 page edition for the winter period and now features feature writers from FGH and the wider security industry. This quarter’s feature writers are Robin Barratt, internationally selling author of such works as Doing the Doors and FGH’s own Dave Taylor.
FGH Security has great plans for 2010 to be even more exciting than 2009. Watch this space for details.
2008 Summary
In 2008 the company expanded dramatically, acquiring several major new contracts and employing ever larger numbers of staff. FGH also used this year to begin the process of diversifying the services we offer. As such this year saw the establishment of our key holding and mobile patrol services in addition to the high quality services that we already provided.
In addition to diversifying its offerings FGH also expanded its core services considerably. Several new security guarding contracts followed in the wake of the White Cross Industrial Estate, which had been acquired the previous year. Most notable of these was the Kingsway Development, an ongoing building contract in Lancaster. This was the start of a truly dramatic rise in the size and in the already high quality of our security guarding division.
Door Supervision contracts also expanded rapidly during this time. In particular we expanded into southern Lancashire and Greater Manchester for the first time, picking up contracts in Bury, Bolton, Burnley and Manchester. In addition to this a major new contract started in Cumbria at Lakeland Leisure Park. This expansion was largely due to the considerable influence of Adam Tomlinson, Lancashire Operations Manager, who had taken over this post midway through the previous year and whose sweeping reforms later saw him become a finalist for Contract Security Manager of the Year in 2009. Expansion in Cumbria came from the hard work and professionalism of Cumbria Operations Manager Danny Geere.
The company’s rapid expansion also led to changes at head office. The most significant of these was the triumphal return of Dave Hassall as the new Marketing Manager. Dave provided new and exciting ideas and brought an even more dynamic feel to our head office. Not surprisingly several new contracts followed as a direct result of his involvement. In addition to this Dave Taylor was recruited as a Vetting Officer and to provide general support to the management.
The arrival of Dave Hassall also brought with it the inaugural edition of the FGH Chronicle, the company’s quarterly magazine. Initially this was eight pages long and was packed with exciting articles, special offers and interesting information about FGH. A far cry indeed from the drab newsletters put out sporadically by some other companies.
