Can you give us a brief history of Manguard Plus, the industry and services you provide?
Manguard Plus was founded in 1996 and has grown to be Ireland’s largest privately owned Irish Security Company, employing over 1,000 people from offices in Dublin, Kildare, Waterford, Derry and Belfast as well as London and Chester in the UK. We provide:
- Security guards and front of house Concierge staff
- Event staff
- Live CCTV monitoring of buildings using motion detection to alert our controllers
- Alarm and CCTV monitoring as well as full alarm installation
- Key Holding
- Building mobile patrols
- Vacant Property Inspections
- Alarm response
- Lone worker protection
What are the challenges that you face in your business and how do you work to overcome them?
Recruitment is a huge challenge at the moment. We, like almost all companies, are finding it very hard to recruit staff and this is posing real difficulties. The security industry is a huge business and is now a very real career with excellent advancement opportunities. We are constantly working to improve staff training, organising internal and external exams and courses, and recognise that our staff are our best asset. We are constantly striving to ensure they benefit from the best pay and conditions. In consultation with our clients and SIPTU, we took the unprecedented decision in our industry to increase the hourly rates for our security personnel by 0.40 cents per hour to reflect what had been proposed in the ERO. We are now paying this increase for every hour worked by all employees.
This means that although the ERO was not enacted none of the Manguard Plus employees are at a loss as their pay has been suitably increased to reflect the changes that had been proposed.
We couldn’t have done this without our clients who have supported us in this endeavour. It is their ongoing commitment and trust in Manguard Plus that has allowed us to reward our loyal and dedicated staff.
Did security become more of a priority for businesses as a result of Covid-19?
Absolutely. Our company grew substantially during the Pandemic, and this was down to the very solid foundations that we carefully laid down over the last number of years. This forward thinking paid dividends during the upheaval that COVID-19 presented.
Manguard Plus is the only security company in Ireland with the latest certified Command and Control Centre and investing in our IS EN ISO 50518 Alarm and CCTV Monitoring Centre meant that we could immediately provide the range of services required to continue to operate in the COVID-19 work environment.
Forward planning and risk-based decision making is at the core of what we do. In light of the significantly changed working environment that COVID-19 presented, we reviewed our 5 Year Strategic Plan to ensure that we were able to provide the very best service to our clients. Being adaptable and fluid is critical to being able to fully meet our clients’ needs and expectations.
Manguard Plus has a proven record in agility and meticulous planning, allowing us to respond quickly, be it installing remote monitoring, mobile patrols or building checks. The daily patrol checks ensured that any potential risks such as unwanted activity around a building, checking for water leaks together with running the water systems to prevent the potential for biological hazards such as Legionnaires Disease in unoccupied buildings where water systems stagnate are mitigated. The ease with which Manguard Plus adapted to the changing environment over the last few years was made possible by long-term forward planning and the investments we had made.
Can you tell us a bit about current and upcoming trends in Security services
Many businesses can’t afford a large capital spend to improve their security and move to a remote service. Manguard Plus has identified this as a critical business issue, to address this we have put in place a 3-year lease programme.
It’s an ideal time for organisations to undertake a Risk Assessment of their operations, with a view to increasing their effective control measures and embedding resilience across all organisational activities. Within the overall risk assessment, consideration needs to be given to their security exposure and effective measures taken to reduce these exposures to an acceptable level. While undertaking an organisational risk assessment, companies should consider the identification, analysis and evaluation of risk, with risk treatment options being implemented to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
Manguard Plus will:
- Conduct a Security Review and Risk Assessment
- Advise what is required to mitigate the risks to an acceptable level
- Arrange for an upgraded alarm and/or CCTV system to deter and detect intruders
- Monitor all systems alarms and CCTV and respond to activations
- As part of a coordinated response provide remote audio alerts and send out a physical patrol response
- This entire package is provided in a 3-year lease purchase package, customers will own the security systems after 3 years.
What has been your biggest achievement and biggest risk?
Our biggest achievement has been successfully growing our business to where it is today without ever compromising on standards and our quality of service. Excellent professional service is our trademark and this is what has enabled us to become one of the most trusted quality service providers in our industry.
Our Biggest risk was to invest in the building of our state-of-the-art En50518 Monitoring Centre. It was a huge financial outlay with a venture into an unknown area of the security business but gladly that has all paid off, and is now a huge success.
What drives you as a business?
Determination to do well from a business point of view, to be in a position to provide an absolute a quality service to our much valued clients, to provide excellent jobs for our staff , to be in a position to support our community through sponsorship especially young Football academies like St Patrick’s Athletic and the likes of Moorefield GAA and Kildare GAA. We provide sponsorship for many underage clubs and we see it as an investment in all our futures.
What made you decide to become a member of Guaranteed Irish?
It was one of the easiest decisions we’ve ever made—Guaranteed Irish is a recognised stamp of approval. I, like so many others of my generation, grew up with the Brand- the G, it was on school copybooks, it was on food, it was everywhere and it was synonymous with Irish success and quality.
Can you tell us how it felt to win the professional services category Guaranteed Irish Business Award?
We were absolutely honoured to win this award. Being recognised as a leading, trusted and professional company by Guaranteed Irish is a huge stamp of approval for Manguard Plus.
We strive to be the best at what we do and it was really great to see that we met the Awards’ exacting standards.
We pride ourselves on our commitment to the values that the Guaranteed Irish Business Awards’ recognise such as job creation, valuable contribution to the Irish economy and dedication to ongoing community support.
What is next for Manguard Plus?
Our aim is to consolidate our services. We are opening a new technical wing at the company where we intend to fit state of the art Security solutions through CCTV , intruder alarms, high quality access Control ,personal protection devices and hopefully the use of Security Drones, which we are currently testing. We look at technology as playing a big part in security going forward and we want to be at the fore front for providing leading technology solutions for our clients.
Learn more by visiting Manguard Plus at www.manguardplus.ie or call on 0818313300