MAN Commercial Protection Ltd is a privately-owned security company based in Solihull, in the West Midlands. The business has been trading for 28 years, growing to become a national provider of security throughout the UK.

From its head office, MAN Commercial Protection supports its contracts nationwide. But at a time when many security companies are more like specialist electronics providers, MAN Commercial Protection has always been about people. While the security technology is constantly improving, there is still a vital role for the human touch.

“Our business is about people, delivering security staff rather than electronics,” says Iain McCallister, CEO of MAN Commercial Protection. “We’ve just gone through our 28th anniversary two days ago and we’ve grown to a massive size over the last few years. We’ve achieved a position where we’re one of the market leaders in the UK.”

Being “about people” doesn’t just mean that they supply security guards. MAN Commercial Protection’s people-orientated approach can be seen running through the entire business.

“The most important thing is we’re a family business,” McCallister tells us. “That is visible in our websites and social media and all the different platforms we communicate through. I still own the business 100%, with no private equity, no venture capitalists, no corporate funding. Our personal touch comes from the fact that family members are still involved at the directorship level. We have an ethos where to this day we care about our staff and our people.”

Reflecting this ethos, McCallister is very hands-on as CEO in the day-to-day running of the company. Other family members are also key parts of the company, especially in HR.

“The staff know they will be looked after if they’ve got any issues, and the past 12 months have been the biggest example of that,” McCallister informs us.

Trials of the Pandemic

The challenges of the last year need no introduction, and there isn’t a company that hasn’t experienced some challenges as a result of the ongoing pandemic, but as a people-centred organisation MAN Commercial Protection faced unique challenges.

“Because we supply people, we have had to look very closely at staff welfare, making sure we kept an eye on staff who were shielding or self-isolating, or people with family members ill or who had been in hospital,” McCallister recalls. “We were calling them, making sure they were okay, ensuring head office continued 24/7 because as a 24-hour office we have to make sure it’s totally clean, with all the PPE and hand sanitisers we need and every surface receiving a wipe down. We’ve been social distancing, making sure we have people working from home where possible.”

However, despite these challenges, McCallister points out MAN Commercial Protection has grown over the last 12 months. Its customers in the supply chain have also experienced massive growth, which in turn has promoted growth in MAN itself.

“We’ve had to implement changes based on social distancing and PPE. One thing that we’ve done as well is we’ve kept regular COVID updates with the staff by email. Because our control room is active 24-hours, our staff know they can call at any time, ensuring that from our point of view we’re making sure their concerns are met,” McCallister tells us. “It’s been a challenge really. With social distancing as well, we’ve been quite fortunate that we’ve got a fair size office that we own. We can make it to our specifications as we need. We’ve continued to grow because our customers have continued to grow, so our business has increased.”

Investing Back in People

MAN Commercial Protection knows the importance of taking care of its people because 28 years of trading have proven just that.

“If I was to work out how many people have worked for us it would go into tens of thousands of people,” McCallister points out. “We have people who’ve been with us for over 20 years. So recruits have to buy into our ethos, and our whole ethos is about what makes us different. Knowing the industry as well as I do, our business model is about investing back into people. We’ve had so many people over the years from office juniors, growing into roles at head office, guys who start as a guard and become a manager and contract manager.”

As well as supporting people within the company MAN Commercial Protection has also reached out into the community to support clubs and charities. At the same time, McCallister’s experience in the field means he’s got a few connections to draw on to help out.

“We have supported a local boxing club for the last 15 years. My background also means I did a lot of personal security looking after people getting good contacts, which means good gifts we can use as charity donations,” McCallister says. “We’ve made many donations to local charities, giving away signed gloves or shirts. In our 25^th year, the girls in the office put together an anniversary event that raised £13,000 for charity in one night. Over the years we’ve raised a lot of money for charities.”

Looking to the future, MAN Commercial Protection is set to continue expanding, but with people remaining at the centre of its vision.

“We are just about to buy another office, next door but one to our current office which will take our current area to 7,000 square foot,” McCallister tells us. “We will continue to grow alongside our existing customers, continue investing in people, in what we’re doing right. We’ve got a good name in the industry so we’re going to work hard to keep increasing turnover and staff and cement our position within the security industry in the UK.”

McCallister is philosophical about the challenges the company has overcome so far and is keen to move forward.

“It’s been a hard 12 months,” he admits. “We’ve worked so hard. Where a lot of people might have had furloughs, everyone here has worked really hard throughout the pandemic, and you reap what you sow. It’s all come from our team, investing in people and keeping moving forward.”