19/01/2011 Few companies could benefit from the insecurity that Mexico is experiencing, but one of them is the private security company Multisistemas, which in 2010 had a growth in its revenues of 25% compared to 2009.
Multisistemas occupies the 429th position in the ranking of the 500 Most Important Companies in Mexico.
Alejandro Desfassiaux, CEO of the company, believes that the growth of the firm is understood, in part, because the situation of insecurity is generating a change in the consciousness of its customers, as it is moving from a reactive security to a preventive one.
"This forced us, in 2010, to invest almost 4 million dollars (million dollars), in addition to the 3 million that were already budgeted; we are talking about that last year we invested about 7 million dollars to promote preventive safety processes, 120% more than in 2008," he says.
"That greater 'awareness' is going to benefit companies that operate with high quality standards," adds Desfassiaux, who is also the leader of the National Private Security Council, in which around 200 companies are grouped.
What is a fact is that the demand for security continues to rise.
"In Tamaulipas alone, 800 positions of personal security guards were created, in 2010 alone," says José Luis Rojo, leader of the National Association of the Security Industry (Anainse).
Despite the juicy business, "the players are the same. There are no new ones in the big leagues," says the director of Multisystems. Most of the private security companies that have been maintained, about 8,000, are foreign. "At least 90% are transnational and 10% local."
Multisystems is one of the few national security companies, although it also has offices in the United States and Switzerland.
Financially, the company couldn't be in a better time; their debts have not grown. "We were about to go public, but we saw that we didn't need it," says Desfassiaux.
Nor does it seek to grow its number of customers too much, but to consolidate with more equipment and preparation.
"Today we are getting ahead of ourselves. Now we grab criminals when in the past we only consigned them." That explains, in part, the firm's investment.
"Our clients are people looking to recover their investment and many times the first year we get them to recover up to 40% of what were previously losses due to theft," says Desfassiaux.
The people who want a door opener for their condo are not their customers, he says. This broader market is left to those he considers "duckling companies", that is, those that do not have quality certificates or are not even registered with the Ministry of Public Security (SSP).
However, for José Luis Rojo, there are also "formal" companies, with all the permits, but that do not give a good service.
According to data from the National Private Security Council, 80% of security companies do not have a federal or local permit; 18% have some type of permit; and only 2% have all the permits and quality certificates.
Multisistemas already works, in coordination with federal authorities, to record and share information. That has been one of its main recent challenges, explains its director.
Source: cnnexpansion.com
