Focus on terrorism

Chief executive of Westminster Group, Peter Fowler, told The Oxford Times: “I focused on the terrorism threat back in 2000. Then after 9/11 in New York in 2001 and 7/7 in London (2005), the whole world focused on it.

“Now we are looking long-term at about £300m in live quotations — though this is a business with long gestation periods and it takes time for contracts to come to fruition.”

All the same we were talklng just after the company had won a contract worth £400m from an unnamed sub-Saharan African Government. Unnamed, Mr Fowler explained, because it was to be used for covert surveilance and “the Government concerned would certainly not want everyone to know it had it.”

Mr Fowler added: “This latest contract consists of specialised equipment and solutions designed specifically to address our clients security requirements. We believe this could be the first of several similar contract awards once the concept is proved successful.

“It is a further example of our ability to design and and provide solutions to meet our clients’ needs and to be able to deploy those solutions internationally as required.”

And while talking of that contract Mr Fowler also mentioned another that the firm has just landed nearer to home. The UK distribution rights of the B.O.S.S. (Body Orifice Security Scanner) chairs which are used in some of the toughest jails and prisons in America to detect unwanted metallic contraband objects hidden within the body cavities of detainees and inmates.

He said: “I am delighted we have secured exclusive distributorship of these advanced scanners which when installed in prisons and similar establishments will significantly enhance security.

“Westminster already supplies the HM Prison Service, the Ministry of Justice and various Police Forces with a range of security solutions and the B.O.S.S. scanner is an excellent addition to our range.

“With around 140 UK prisons and numerous custody suites within UK Police Stations there is significant potential for both sales and maintenance revenue relating to these units.”

The Banbury AIM listed company, chairman of which is Lt-Col Sir Malcolm Ross, who runs the Prince of Wales’ household, has grown from scratch in 2000 to a turnover of £5.5m last year and an expected £9.5m this year. It employs 50 people in Banbury and maintains very close contact with 85 agents abroad, supplying governments, banks, police forces, oil companies, airports — you name it.

But what of the ethics of all this, is not Mr Fowler worried about the purposes to which some of this equipment might be put? “There is a banned list, a black list if you like, of nations with whom the UK does not trade; otherwise we trade with anyone who is acceptable to our Government.

“Then of course none of our equipment is offensive, it is esentially protective. And on top of that we are governed by the need for export licences.”

Mr Fowler says he has been in the security business since he was in short trousers, starting his working life with for burglar alarm companies such as Standfast Alarms; then in 1990 he joined Westminster (then called Westminster Security Systems, founded in 1988) as managing director. The same year the company was bought by the Menvier-Swain Group plc.

After a number of successes, notably installing a full colour CCTV surveilance system linking Banbury, Bicester, and Kidlington, Mr Fowler led a successful Management Buy Out for Westminster Security Systems. But in 2000 it sold its traditional burglar alarm business to Chubb in order to concentrate on the international scene Mr Fowler commented: “There is very little profit margin in the traditional business because of the low cost of entry into the market.”.

In 2006, however, it put its toe back into the UK domestic market by buying RMS Integrated Solutions,which provides low voltage fire, security and communication schemes for new buildings.

In 2007 the company ceased its manufacturing activities altogether to concentrate on using its expertise to put together tailor-made security systems — which it can demonstrate at its four and a half acre Test Ground adjoining its Banbury headquarters.

Some of the company’s James Bond type gadgets will be on view at an Open Day for potential customers on Tuesday and Wednesday (September 15 and 16) next week with representatives from several governments expected to attend.

Objects on view will include: the latest heartbeat detection kit that can unerringly locate stowaways, for example in lorries, by simply applying it to the outside of the vehicle; perimeter and pipeline security systems; and long range serveillance and tracking schemes.

Also on view will be the ThruPort Rapid Deployment Scanning Solution for airports, ports, government buildings, military bases, and prisons, of which Mr Fowler seemed particularly proud.

He said: “Its a mobile scanning unit contained in a 40 ft container which can be placed outside buildings and detect, say, someone in a suicide vest before he or she even gets into the place. It would be ideal for use at the Olympics, for example.”

There seems no limit to the ingenuity of the devices dreamed up worldwide in order to stop ill wishers disrupting the march of progress. The firm has even put together a net, composed of fibre optic cables, to protect a dam on the Nile from saboteaurs. It keeps unwelcome divers and boats away while at the same time protecting the dam from weed which could clog its works!

The world of James Bond it may be, but Mr Fowler is quick to point out that the business model here is based on agents working closely with governments, not against them.