From watchmen to couriers to electronics experts, security service officers can play a wide range of roles. With a long and illustrious history dating back to Roman times, private security has found its place providing a bit of peace of mind to its clients and lending a helping hand to police. In the Baltics, the private security industry has flourished and is still going strong. In this week's Industry Insider, The Baltic Times takes a look at the general state of security services, the way companies screen their employees and delves into G4S (formerly Falck) 's the market leader in the Baltics.
RIGA - The first private security company in the Baltics was founded in Estonia in 1991, a few months before the country had even formally declared independence. By the end of the year, dozens more had cropped up in all three Baltic states.
In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Baltics were a rough place. Spare weapons and munitions could be found scattered throughout the countries, and many people were desperate enough to use them.
Private security, especially from legitimate companies, was a luxury that few could afford.
Today, the Baltics have become a far more peaceful place to live and do business. The rough and tumble 90s have disappeared, but nonetheless security services companies today are seeing their businesses grow stronger than ever.
The industry has been experiencing a strong, steady growth in nearly every sector since the 90s.
"With regards to demand and regular growth we can speak about sales increasing 20 to 25 percent in all areas," Julius Adamitus, general manager of Lithuanian security service provider Apsaugos Komanda, told The Baltic Times.
Adamitus said the increase was largely due to the simple fact that as people have more money they have more money to spend on protection. Moreover, he said high demand and low market saturation means the industry should continue to see strong growth rates over the next few years.
"Looking at the private apartments and houses sector, for example, there are still a very low number which are monitored by electronic means 's no more than 7 percent. In [Western] Europe it is about 20 percent," he said.
In Estonia, growth is not quite as high as in the other two Baltic states, but it is still steadily advancing. Veiko Jurisson, a security expert with the Estonian Security Service, an NGO composed of 17 different security companies, said in a major 2006 European security conference that growth has stayed strong at around 10 percent for more than a decade.
Michael Chernousov, chairman of the Latvian Federation of Detectives and Security Services, said the situation in Latvia is also set to stay strong as the country continues to grapple with a relatively high crime rate.
"I would say a lot of people need security service in Latvia because the criminal situation is not very good 's criminal activity is very high 's especially recently. The year did not begin very calmly, and there are some killers now walking around the country," he told The Baltic Times.
Steady growth has naturally led to strong competition. There are currently about 300 security companies in Latvia 's 50 of which can provide high-quality service, Chernousov said. Further to the south, there are 20 high-quality security companies in Vilnius alone.
Challenges
Though growth is strong in the three Baltic states, there are still a number of key challenges that the industry is facing.
As with many other industries in the Baltics, one of the biggest concerns is a lack of qualified labor. The shortage has hurt security services worse than most, as it is one of the few industries where the product really is only as good as the person who delivers it.
As average wages increase and employees demand more and more money every year, companies are forced to either raise prices or cut staff. In Lithuania, which has so far seen the highest number of emigrants, the situation is particularly dire.
"Of course [a big problem is] the work force, our services are 'hand made' 's we can't employ robots. With annual wage growth around 20 percent and no subsidies from government, it is a sensitive problem and we have to ask the client to pay more because of salaries," Adamitus said.
Jurisson also mentioned the labor shortage as a major problem for Estonia.
"Our biggest concern is the shortage in labor force and the lack of qualified security guards," he said during a round table discussion at the conference.
Members of Falck Apsargs, the Latvian branch of the leading G4S Security Company (see story next Page), even went on strike last year to demand doubled wages and proper pay for overtime hours. The majority of strikers eventually called it off at the 11th hour, though a few followed through with the picket and the incident served to highlight the industry's reliance on qualified labor.
Chernousov also sees the labor shortage as a large obstacle to business, but pointed to other more sinister problems security services are facing in Latvia. He said many companies in the country have active connections with criminal gangs.
"Often the outwardly imposing and well-advertised security guard firms exist on criminal grants, they do their work by applying dumping politics, chiefly illegal and criminal methods," he said.
Chernousov said his company was working closely with police to eradicate the problem, and to generally improve coordination between private and public security officers.
