The world market for private contractual security services
is projected to expand 8.3 percent annually through 2006,
approaching $120 billion, according to a new study from
market research firm The Freedonia Group of Cleveland.
According to the report, heightened fears of terrorism attacks on the United States and other events, in connection with rising conventional crime rates in many countries, will be the primary factors driving growth.
The firm reports that revenue by the North American market was $36 million in 2001, and increasing to $50 million by 2006. Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Mideast are expected to gain the fastest growth because of unpenetrated private security markets and the means to invest in supplemental security measures.
The firm reports that contract guarding will remain the largest segment of the market, accounting for more than 40 percent of total revenues. But while the demand will benefit from the trend of outsourcing public and proprietary (in-house) guard operations, the growth will be stalled by competition from an increase in affordable electronic security equipment like CCTV and access control.
Rapid gains are expected to take place in other, less mature security service markets, according to the study. For example, the central station alarm monitoring demand will track growth in the market for burglar and fire alarms. Factors ranging from concerns over white collar crime to stricter security industry regulations and the growing threat of terrorism will generate robust demand for other miscellaneous services such as investigations, training, employee screening, systems integration and consulting.
For more information on the study, go to www.freedoniagroup.com.
