Security Services

• According to verified market research, the Global Physical Security Market was valued at USD 85.58 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 184.01 billion by 2025.

Market Watch, May 2020

UK

Rollo Davies Predictions, a frontline Security Expert and Managing Editor of The Professional Security Officer Magazine (TPSO):

Although there are fewer guarding opportunities in the entertainment industry, there are new opportunities in other sectors like supermarkets, and frontline security officers are needed to supervise social distancing at a number of locations. Post COVID-19, I think we will have to increase training for our officers. There are professional security officers who want to do their job, but there are also officers who got on-the-job training and who took the job because they perceived it to be an easy job.

I think the use of CCTVs will increase, and all of these changes will put pressure on the guarding industry. I foresee a need for improvements in the manned guarding industry, but that need is primarily for more training and education.”

Tracktik, April 2020

Call Centres

Increased Demand

As per The Times UK, April 2020,

One industry that looks certain to benefit is call centres. Customers who have spent hours on hold in recent weeks will know that unprecedented call volumes have swamped many centres. After this spike decreases, there is likely to be a permanent increase in demand that could help to stem, or even reverse, recent job losses in this key part of the economy.

Operational Challenges

As per Call Centre Helper, March 2020,

• The most obvious challenge is how to continue operations when staff are office-based. Other problems include reduced staffing levels and the knock-on effect on the service delivered to the end customer.
• There will inevitably be increased pressure on day-to-day operations, as there may be increased call volumes, and with less staff to service the calls, there will be increased waiting times, leading to increased customer dissatisfaction.

Call Centers

• Over the five years through 2021-22, industry revenue is expected to decline at a compound annual rate of 1.8% to £2.1 billion, though this includes forecast growth of 5.1% during 2021-22.
• The pound depreciation since the EU referendum has reduced competition from abroad, although competition in the industry remains high.
• Technological and digital infrastructure improvements have also increased IT and telecommunications adoption, creating new avenues to interact with clients.
• Calls that need to be recorded have created difficulty, from a regulatory perspective, in allowing call centre employees to work from home.
• Demand for answering services and outbound calls increased over 2020-21 as consumers sought advice from the NHS or have been traced following positive coronavirus tests.
• Some larger companies have benefited from the outsourcing of coronavirus-related calling services, which has given a temporary boost to revenue. (IBIS World, 2021)[1]

Security

• Government contracts are expected to overtake construction as the largest market in the industry, as the coronavirus pandemic has caused significant disruption to the construction sector.
• Due to the coronavirus outbreak, industry profit margins are expected to have dropped in 2020-21, as operators struggled to cut costs at the rate of revenue decline.
• Industry revenue is expected to have declined by 12.2% in 2020-21, as the coronavirus pandemic weighed on demand from commercial and residential markets. (IBIS World, 2021)[2]

 Document Management

• A significant decline in downstream business activity, owing to the effects of the coronavirus outbreak, has spurred a notable contraction in industry demand during the latter half of the past five-year period.
• New regulations requiring businesses to limit contact in workplaces are expected to necessitate office reconfiguration, spurring companies to outsource document management and storage to optimise office space.
• Ad-hoc services that rely on levels of downstream output and require access to business premises have been the worst affected, with Restore plc noting an 18.1% decline in revenue from its Datashred business in 2020. Document storage services are expected to have been less severely affected by reduced economic output, owing to the dependence of these services on contracted and recurring revenue. For more detail, please see the Products and Services chapter. (IBIS World, 2021)[3]

Corporate Travel Services

• The repeated bans on international travel during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic are expected to significantly weigh on the number of overseas visits by UK residents. According to the latest Office for National Statistics data, UK residents made 939,000 visits abroad over the three months through June 2020, representing a 96% contraction on the corresponding period the previous year, a decline mainly attributable to the coronavirus pandemic.
• The sharp economic downturn following the coronavirus outbreak is expected to cause business confidence and profit to decline in the current year. During the pandemic, industry operators are expected to face unsustainably high operational costs such as debt, rent, and wages.
• As businesses have been forced to adapt their processes during the pandemic, most have banned national and international corporate trips in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, unless necessary. This could restrict demand for corporate travel in the long term. For more detail, please see the Demand Determinants chapter. (IBIS World, 2021)[4]