In search of Olympic gold

Dec 1 2009 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

A TEES Valley security firm, which lost out in the property crash as developers abandoned sites and its core business melted away, is hoping to emerge from the slump by building business on the back of close protection, retail surveillance and crowd control contracts at the London Olympics.

Family-owned All Events Security, of Darlington, which employs a team of six full-time staff and hundreds of contract security officers and bouncers across the North-east, said corporate Security Industry Authority approval, which is due to be granted in the New Year, along with terrorist awareness training for all staff, would help it break into new markets.

Set up by the late Bob Hardman in 2000 and now run by his son Ken as MD, the firm recently opened a satellite office in Worcester from which it hopes to expand its services in the south of England, said business development manager Andrew Stevenson.

“We’ve been doing very well on the events side, now we are expanding into retail security with the launch of our Eagle Eye CCTV services,” he said.

The company was hired to patrol the recent mima Top Gear event and works regularly for Darlington and Middlesbrough councils. High-profile work has included security for the X Factor and Teesside’s Journey South.

Mr Stevenson said the company had been hit hard by the downturn in the building trade. “Hopefully, it’s going to pick up again, which will open up a lot more sites for us to get into. It was a big part of the business, but at least we had something to cling on to with events.”

The firm, which aims to double turnover next year to £2m, hopes to be successful in tenders to provide site security and crowd control at the London Olympics in 2012.