News

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) says that it wants to use trained volunteers for providing security across the venues for the 2012 Olympic Games. According to LOCOG, by the time of 2012 Opening Ceremony, 100,000 people will be working on the Games including 3,000 staff, up to 70,000 volunteers and a large number of contractors. While it could be a good idea to use volunteers for the Games in general, questions can be raised […]

In two years time London will host the world’s largest sporting event, the Olympics. One of the challenges for its organisers will be to provide foolproof security for the games. The International Olympic Committee regards security as the “number one priority” for every organising committee, and we must ensure that we have the highest standard of safety procedures for the participants and the visitors alike. The organisers of the London Olympic Games have called on the citizens to volunteer for […]

As part of our recent survey across clients, retailers, public authorities and commercial facilities managers 85% of respondents cited Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an important issue. They also said they would be more likely to choose a CSR and environment focused supplier of security services than a company which did not take such matters seriously. How times have changed! Magenta was the first manned guarding company to be ISO 14001 certified around ten years ago and since then has […]

Despite the rise of “one-stop-shop” facilities management and security providers during the last decade, Magenta’s recent survey highlights an overwhelming preference for specialists rather than multi-service providers. Magenta Security Services, Abbey Petkar: “The respondents to our survey, which included retailers, facilities managers, leisure facility managers and commercial property managers, clearly indicated their preference for single service providers and experts in security.” When asked whether they prefer to work with security professionals and additional single service suppliers such as caterers, cleaners etc or […]

In a recent survey 50% of respondents didn’t consider accreditation to be important when using the services of security specialist. Magenta, managing director, Abbey Petkar: “Accreditation demonstrates our ability and our trustworthiness – it is the benchmark of professionals and this statistic is surprising in the light of the overall survey results. The accreditation question was particularly revealing when compared to the fact that that 53% of respondents cited ‘fear of theft’ to be the prime security threat to their […]

Following our recent survey of business security issues I’m not at all surprised to see that theft tops the list of security risks, with a staggering 53%* claiming that it’s ‘the greatest security threat to my business’. Theft is devastating to any business and the people responsible for security live in constant fear of the threat of a physical attack to people and property. It’s not just the trauma of having premises broken into, and all the associated costs of repair, it’s also […]

Hot on the heels of our recent success at the Security Excellence Awards, Magenta Security has been awarded first place in the Green Business Category of the Green Guardian Awards run by Newsquest. The awards are a prestigious regional accolade for the firm which received the Environmental Initiative of the Year Award at the Security Excellence Awards in 2009. Magenta Security Services, Managing Director, Abbey Petkar comments: “The award demonstrates that our environmental and CSR policies go beyond the levels […]

With the Cop 15 Climate Change event in Copenhagen drawing to a close, now is a time for reflection. A period for the governments and people involved to sit back and reflect on decisions made. Further treaties and agreements will no doubt be made over the course of the next few months as world leaders try to comprehend the scale of the challenges arrayed against them and bring about the changes needed to preserve this world and our natural resources. […]

Government, industry and private enterprise are slowly waking up to the fact that the biggest polluter of carbon dioxide is business. Despite endless campaigning to persuade people to reduce, reuse and recycle, it’s the businesses that need to curb their excess; as many churn out more paper and use more electricity and water in a day than the average household will use in a generation. As the government’s vision becomes more focused on this task, so will their insistence that policies […]

When it comes to security, would you prefer a jack of all trades or a master of one? Despite the perceptions of many, security is a professional business, complete with associations, accreditations and qualifications. Why therefore so many facilities managers insist on the cheap “one stop shop option”? For many, the manned security guard is the closest contact they ever have with the security industry, they see people working part time, semi-retired or on a second job and mentally consider […]