Top 15 most profitable UK security companies
‘Sales are for vanity and profit is for sanity’ and although a security company’s sales numbers tell us who is the biggest security company, they don’t tell us if they’re going bust. After all, the most profitable security companies are not always the biggest. For example, Interserve was big with sales of £2.9 billion and went bust and Carillion was huge with sales of £5.2 billion and went to the wall! Therefore, if you want to know the best security company to work for and if it will provide a service, read on.
Video transcript: Who makes money in security guarding
Introduction
Today we’re asking who makes money insecurity guarding. My name is Andrew and here at SIRV we have done a full analysis of the top 15 most profitable UK security companies that filed accounts in the year 2022 and in answer to the question who makes money guarding. The answer is rather depressingly not a lot of people.
Security guarding companies going bust
In actual fact our analysis shows the volume of companies that operate in the security sector that go bust is increasing. As this graph shows since 2020, the member of insolvencies each month has increased to nearly 20 every single month.
Who makes money in security guarding?
This is not good news. However, there are still some companies out there making money from security guarding and we have them listed here along the x-axis! We have the top 15 UK security guarding companies by profit and from top to bottom on the y-axis we have the amount of money that each of these companies makes. Now we have some people not making a lot of money. In actual fact the bottom performer allied made no money whatsoever. They made a loss. Then we have SSGC and Corps security who made just under a million pounds in the year. So these people would be consider the losers the guys and the gels that get the participation certificates when they entered race.
Top 3 most profitable security guarding companies
However, we do have winners, and the winners are over here and you can see they’re the top three winners. In OCS making £20m, in number two we have Mitie making £50m and in number one BidVest making a grand total of £229m.
Now, it’s true to say these companies don’t all just do security guarding. BidVest will do lots of things all around the world as will OCS and it’s not always just guarding but their main activity tends to be still around security guarding, so this still gives us a very good indication of how much money is being made in this sector.
Right, so now that we’ve seen you can make some serious money. In security guarding, you might be asking how on earth do people make so much money? And the answer to that question is back here in our graph. But this time we’re going to have a look at the profits and the amount of employees that each of these companies employ.
We will see that the top three performers employ a lot of people. Indeed, Bidvest employs 164,000 employees, whereas at the bottom end of the profit scale, we have these three, with Allied employing only 454 people. What does this tell us? It tells us that you need one thing to make a lot of money in security guarding and that is scale, size. The bigger you are, all other things being equal, you will make more money. Be big to make money in this sector.
Should you start a guarding business?
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. I know, I’m gonna go out and build a goliath of a security guarding company and make lots of money. Should you start a guarding company question. Before we answer I want you to consider this particular question. I want you to think about how much money you think Bidvest makes compared to Facebook per employee. I don’t mean the amount of money that people have paid, I mean the amount of money these businesses generate divided by the number of employees that they have on their books. How much money do you think Bidvest makes? How much money do you think Facebook makes? I’m going to give you 10 seconds to think up and answer.
Facebook profits versus Security guarding profits
Here’s the results. Bidvest on average makes 43 pounds per employee. Compare that to Facebook who makes 210,000 pounds per employee. I know what business I would want to start were I starting out again. It would not be in security guarding. It would most likely be in-tech.
Conclusion
If you’ve enjoyed this video, please let us know, share and like this particular post. If you’d like to get in touch and ask us some questions, do so at If you’d to Getsirv, you’ll also find a full analysis of the top 15 UK security guarding company’s profitability on our get Getsirv blog. And please comment in social media if you liked this post. Thanks very much for watching! Thank you.
| Rank | Security Company | 2022 Profit £ |
| 1 | The Bidvest Group | 228,786,894 |
| 2 | Mitie Group PLC | 50,700,000 |
| 3 | OCS Group UK | 19,559,000 |
| 4 | ISS Facility Services | 18,662,000 |
| 5 | Wilson James | 7,560,000 |
| 6 | Amberstone Security | 5,037,040 |
| 7 | Kingdom Services Group | 3,315,365 |
| 8 | TSS | 2,877,000 |
| 9 | SecuriGroup | 2,449,783 |
| 10 | I.C.T.S. (U.K.) | 2,323,000 |
| 11 | CIS Security | 2,080,728 |
| 12 | Carlisle Security Services | 898,000 |
| 13 | Corps Security | 806,000 |
| 14 | SSGC | 173,733 |
| 15 | Allied Universal (Europe) | -544,096 |
Note
- Bidvest records financial results using the Rand. Therefore, converted to GBP with 0.042 exchange rate.
- TSS accounts use 14 month accounting period.
- OCS and Atalian Servest merger means 2021 accounts shown.
More and more companies are going bust – especially security companies!
More companies go bust today than at any time since 2008. To make money is tough. Moreover, external events such as COVID19 don’t help: Gold’s Gym, Topshop, Hertz and Virgin Atlantic all went bust owing to the pandemic. And, while governments bail out big banks, security companies offer physical not financial security and therefore, don’t get a bail out.
The below graph shows a big increase in the number of security companies going bust.
Look for safety not sales
To grow a security company is a great achievement: it’s a competitive industry with huge price pressure and regulation (Martyns Law). However, not all growth is good. For example, some sales are won at such a low price they lose companies money. Therefore, to know if a company is good, bad or risky, we need more than just sales numbers.
Search for a safe, profitable security company
A safe, profitable security company is one that makes money, pays their bills on time and is efficient. Therefore, we need to know if the security company can:
- Make a profit
- Pay people it owes
- Make money from its sales
- Make money from its employees
- Pay its finance interest
We look at a security company’s financial results and work out if it’s safe and profitable: the best security company to work for and with.
1. Top 15 most profitable security companies
| Rank | Security Company | 2022 Profit £ |
| 1 | The Bidvest Group | 228,786,894 |
| 2 | Mitie Group PLC | 50,700,000 |
| 3 | OCS Group UK | 19,559,000 |
| 4 | ISS Facility Services | 18,662,000 |
| 5 | Wilson James | 7,560,000 |
| 6 | Amberstone Security | 5,037,040 |
| 7 | Kingdom Services Group | 3,315,365 |
| 8 | TSS | 2,877,000 |
| 9 | SecuriGroup | 2,449,783 |
| 10 | I.C.T.S. (U.K.) | 2,323,000 |
| 11 | CIS Security | 2,080,728 |
| 12 | Carlisle Security Services | 898,000 |
| 13 | Corps Security | 806,000 |
| 14 | SSGC | 173,733 |
| 15 | Allied Universal (Europe) | -544,096 |
Commentary
With the exception of #15 Allied Universal, all in the list of top 15 security companies are profitable.
Bidvest rank #1 with £228 million profit. But, this should be seen in context; it’s a global services and trading group of companies based in South Africa. Therefore, much of their profit may not come from security.
#2 Mitie is a UK based group of companies. It considers itself number one in security with 29% of its business in security.
#3 OCS merged with Atalian Servest. Therefore, 2022 numbers are not available. As a result, their profit of £19.5 million reflects their 2021 profit.
2. Can a security company pay people it owes?
Can a security company pay people it owes? Some companies make a profit but go bust because they can’t access funds quickly enough to pay people they owe. This is a question of its short-term financial strength and helps us know if it’s the best security company to work for or, with.
The best way to tell if a security company can pay people it owes is something called the quick ratio:
Current Assets less Inventory / Current Liabilities
Any result more than 1 is good and below 1 is bad.
Security companies that can pay people they owe
| Rank | Security Company | Can it pay people it owes? |
| 1 | TSS | Yes: 1.64 |
| 2 | Amberstone | Yes: 1.46 |
| 3 | OCS Group UK | Yes: 1.45 |
| 4 | I.C.T.S. (U.K.) | Yes: 1.44 |
| 5 | Wilson James | Yes: 1.42 |
| 6 | SecuriGroup | Yes: 1.40 |
| 7 | CIS Security | Yes: 1.34 |
| 8 | ISS | Yes: 1.33 |
| 9 | Carlisle Security | Yes: 1.22 |
| 10 | Allied Universal | Yes: 1.09 |
| 11 | SSGC | Yes: 1.03 |
| 12 | Corps Security | Yes: 1.03 |
| 13 | Kingdom Security | Caution: 0.97 |
| 14 | Mitie | Caution: 0.93 |
| 15 | Bidvest Noonan | Caution 0.86 |
Commentary
The table shows three security companies may struggle to pay people it owes:
- #13 Kingdom
- #14 Mitie
- #15 Bidvest
Although all these companies are profitable, they may not get access to money when they need it. Therefore, it’s wise to apply caution. However, the majority of the top 15 UK security companies can pay people they owe.
Bidvest is #1 for profit but ranks #15 because it has lots of money tied up in stock/inventory, which it may not be able to sell quickly enough to pay people it owes.
3. Can a security company make money from its sales?
Can a security company make money from its sales? Put another way, for each pound it receives in sales, how many pence does it make? This is a measure of a company’s efficiency and it’s key to business success. We work it out by subtracting cost from sales:
Sales less cost of sales & administration cost
Pence in the pound top security companies make
| Rank | Security Company | Pence in the £ |
| 1 | Bidvest | 10 pence |
| 2 | Amberstone | 7 pence |
| 3 | SecuriGroup | 5 pence |
| 4 | Wilson James | 4 pence |
| 5 | CIS Security | 3 pence |
| 6 | ISS | 3 pence |
| 7 | TSS | 3 pence |
| 8 | Kingdom Security | 2 pence |
| 9 | I.C.T.S. (U.K.) | 2 pence |
| 10 | OCS Group UK | 2 pence |
| 11 | Mitie | 1 pence |
| 12 | Corps Security | 1 pence |
| 13 | Carlisle Security | 1 pence |
| 14 | SSGC | 0 pence |
| 15 | Allied Universal | -2 pence |
Commentary
The table shows a big difference in the efficiency of security companies. For example, while the least efficient company is #15 Allied Universal with two pence lost in each pound, #1 Bidvest makes 10 pence for each pound it receives.
Unlike Bidvest, Amberstone at #2 focus exclusively on security. They put their impressive performance (7 pence in each pound) down to ‘specific software packages to ensure quality of service, improve profit margins and control costs.’
Mitie ranks high for profit #2, but #11 for efficiency; it makes only 1 pence in each pound.
On average, security companies make 3 pence in each pound.
4. Can a security company make money from its employees?
Can a security company make money from its employees is another way of asking, are its workforce productive? Because security companies mostly provide security officers, it’s key their people are productive. Moreover, it helps us know if it’s the best security company to work for.
It’s easy to work out if a security company is productive:
Profit / number of employees
It’s worth noting that some security companies subcontract their labour need and therefore, may make money without a lot of employees. However, in the main, security companies are human heavy and need to make money from their people.
How much security companies make from each employee
| Rank | Security Company | £ per employee |
| 1 | Amberstone | 2,930 |
| 2 | Wilson James | 1,566 |
| 3 | ISS | 1,426 |
| 4 | OCS Group UK | 1,240 |
| 5 | SecuriGroup | 1,177 |
| 6 | CIS Security | 1,122 |
| 7 | Kingdom security | 858 |
| 8 | Mitie | 745 |
| 9 | I.C.T.S. (U.K.) | 742 |
| 10 | TSS | 449 |
| 11 | Corps Security | 251 |
| 12 | Carlisle Security | 209 |
| 13 | SSGC | 73 |
| 14 | Bidvest Noonan | 43 |
| 15 | Allied Universal | -1,198 |
Commentary
On average each person makes £775 per annum profit for a security company. Notable exceptions to this are three companies that make less than £75 profit per person:
- #13 SSGC
- #14 Bidvest
- #15 Allied Universal
Amberstone at #1 stands out because it makes nearly double the profit of the next best security company #2 Wilson James. This kind of impressive profit number suggests profit from another sector, most likely technology.
By way of contrast, Bidvest employs nearly twice as many people as the technology company Facebook, and makes £43 per employee. Whereas, Facebook makes around £210,000 per employee!
5. Can a security company pay its finance interest?
Many security companies fund their growth by borrowing money, we call this finance debt. When a company takes on borrowing it has to pay interest on that debt. Sometimes, the interest sum cannot be paid by profits and then the company can be in trouble. That’s why it’s important to see if a security company can pay its finance debt.
It’s easy to work out if a security company can pay its finance debt:
Operating profit / interest
Any result more than 1 is good and below 1 is bad.
How many times over can the security company pay their finance interest?
| Rank | Security Company | Times it can pay its finance interest |
| 1 | ISS | 869 |
| 2 | CIS Security | 104 |
| 3 | Kingdom security | 71 |
| 4 | Wilson James | 54 |
| 5 | SecuriGroup | 45 |
| 6 | I.C.T.S. (U.K.) | 34 |
| 7 | TSS | 20 |
| 8 | Carlisle Security | 17 |
| 9 | Corps Security | 12 |
| 10 | Bidvest Noonan | 6 |
| 11 | Mitie | 4 |
| 12 | SSGC | 3 |
| 13 | Allied Universal | Caution -7 |
| 14 | OCS Group UK | No debt to pay |
| 15 | Amberstone Security | No debt to pay |
Commentary
Amberstone and OCS have no finance interest to pay and therefore, this measure doesn’t apply to them. Whereas, some companies such as ISS have good profits and very little interest to pay, hence they’re at #1 with interest covered 869 times!
Most security companies have good profits with low finance debt, the average cover is 95. However, as #13 Universal made no profit and have finance interest to pay, they will need to pay their finance interest from previous year’s profits or re-negotiate their debt.
Frequently asked questions
Group companies: Who’s in charge?
Group companies such as Mitie, own / control lots of different companies. It takes all the financial results of these companies and adds them together to get their Mitie profit. As a result, most people work with or for one of these different companies, not the overall Mitie group company. Therefore, to tell if your employer or provider is the best security company to work for or with is less easy; you could ask the specific company’s financial results or ask for a parent company guarantee. In addition, look at which directors sit on the company’s board. If they sit on both the group and smaller company board then this may show greater buy-in.
How profitable is security?
Because many companies do more than just security, we can’t say exactly how much profit they make from security alone.
What period does this cover?
Because not all companies have published their 2023 results, we only look at 2022. However, this will be updated – subscribe to receive update notification.
Can I reproduce content?
Reproduction of the ‘Top 15 most profitable UK security companies by SIRV’ requires prior written permission from the producers thereof. Get in touch to find out more.
Errors
Every effort is made to accurately reflect public accounts however, typological errors do occur. Therefore, if an error is found please get in touch.
Summary
The safe, profitable security company is one that makes money, pays their bills on time and is efficient; these are the top security companies. But as we show, some companies such as Bidvest make lots of money but appear inefficient. Therefore, they may not be the best security company to work for. In any event, we recommend consideration longer than one year is made – we will update this post accordingly.
If you like this article on profit you may also like Jeff Bezos’ 5 tips to grow your security company and 3 ways to step your clients killing your profit margin.
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