Article from Leinster Leader From 22nd January 2009 Please click here for full text KARL DUNLEAVY - A PROFILE Extract from Leinster Leader What happens when a person in a secure and pensionable job espies a business venture that is simply waiting for someone to pick up and run with? The year is circa 1968 and the person in question is Karl Dunleavy. At the time of finding this business nugget Karl had already spent 12 years as a captain in the army. He decided not to turn a blind eye to the opportunity of establishing his own business and so founded PSS, Provincial Security Services. His organisational and administrative skills and natural business acumen and drive quickly advanced the company to its current status as one of Ireland's premier security companies. My own research discovered that the company is very highly-regarded by its current and former staff, and was the first Irish security company to introduce sick benefit and pension schemes. It is also a company whose success has been built on word of mouth and written references by its employers. We meet in Hotel Keadeen to discuss his career in the security industry, the imminent move to a custom built centre of excellence in Kilcullen, and his forty-years at the forefront of the Irish security industry. Karl is slightly-built, energetic, straight-talking, and owns a repertoire of stories. Not all of them tailored for the written word. The business 'nugget' that presented itself, Karl explains, '…the hydro-electric station at Turlough Hill was being built and security staff were wanted but they couldn't get them. So, I left the army and set up the company.' A company that in its forty-years has afforded employment opportunities for over 3,000 people, with more recent staffing levels at one point averaging 270. Finding capital at the outset proved a major stumbling block and for a while this appeared to be insurmountable. Karl smiles and says he was chased out of a few banks, which seems to this author to have been the lot of several highly successful entrepreneurs whom he has profiled. 'Being a service industry you provide the service and then worry about being paid later. So funding, yes, that was a significant problem. But National Irish Bank, they were a northern bank then - they were very good and have been with us all the way. In forty-years I've never had a problem with them. They were superb.' On reflection Karl tells me that he although he didn't get money from a certain bank he did in fact find his future wife, Ronnie, there. Ronnie and Karl have five children, one of whom Robert is involved with PSS. In the late sixties and early seventies private security companies were an unknown entity in Ireland. A few multinational factories had their own security staff, but these were far and few between in what was then pre-boom territory. Criminality was rising in the country, there were the troubles in the north, and the public voiced concern about the establishing of these so called, 'private armies.' Karl and PSS apart from being the first Irish formed and owned security company were the first to call for the introduction of controls and regulations for the fledgling industry. Belatedly, these calls were heeded and in 2006 legislation was introduced that demanded for a regulatory body to assume control of the industry. The PSA (Private Security Authority) enforces the Act and a number of prosecutions have been taken against non-compliant i.e. unlicensed operators. A telling statistic is that 417 security companies have ceased trading, and 422 PSA licences have been issued to companies. It is an offence to hire security services unless the company and the individual whom it supplies is PSA licensed. Consumers hiring an unlicensed firm risk prosecution, fines and jail. Karl is delighted that the suggestions he mooted were at last taken on board and believes it benefits all concerned in the industry: customers, staff and the public. Returning to the early days, Karl says, 'I had ten staff working at Turlough Hill, and then was asked to provide personnel at Black and Decker…' He mentions the names of a few more firms, saying with a degree of sadness that these have all gone, the victims of the eighties recession. 'In the beginning we were the only Irish security company operating within the twenty-six counties. We were up against the multi-nationals like Group 4…it was tough then and it remains so now.' Tenders for business are submitted to the relevant firm and this company than has a choice. Karl is quite proud of the fact that he has never lost a contract on service quality, '…on price, yes…this happens occasionally and we wouldn't be alone in that regard, but not on quality of service. No. Not once in forty-years.' Most of the staff back in PSS's dawn period was comprised of ex-military. 'Excellent staff. We wouldn't have very many ex-military employed at the moment. Perhaps four or five. The pay and conditions in the army have improved so much in recent years that it makes it difficult for security firms to compete for their services. It's not possible in the commercial world - back then it was possible.' Karl says that neither do they employ many foreign nationals, these comprise for about 10% of staff, 'The majority of our staff are Irish and have been with us for a long time. The average service with us is twelve years, but we have staff who stay for much longer.' People make a career out the security industry, unlike years ago. 'There was a time when a security guard was really a caretaker, a night watchman, but that's all changed. At one time if you had three doors or three gates you had three security guards but nowadays it's three gates and one guard monitoring the three on a computer screen.' Staff employed with PSS have to be computer literate, and there is a career path for them. Karl says openly that he is selfish when it comes to the training and welfare of his staff, 'Well, if you look after them, they're happier in their work, dependable, and will be keen to do the job well. We train them above and beyond what's required - also the pension scheme was an early innovation and not something that the company was compelled to do - likewise with the sick benefit scheme.' Right from the off Karl wanted to run a well-organised, customer and staff appreciative outfit. As an aside he mentions that in the seventies Frank Aherne from Newbridge used to make the uniforms for the company by hand. Training is of paramount importance in the security industry, and also vetting of staff, 'This is something that PSS had been long advocating …' The importance of knowing who a company is employing, training, and sending to provide security at premises is vital and necessary. 'With this in mind we decided to relocate our offices from Cutlery Road in Newbridge to Kilcullen. In addition, the traffic in Newbridge has become a real bugbear. Our new location is custom built for us - 4,000 square feet - complete with training rooms and catering facilities. We'll train our own staff and also those from other companies - to that end all of our managerial staff have been upskilling at third level colleges.' Training, Karl believes, is becoming of increasing importance and PSS's aim is to improve and customise existing standards, and that this can only be achieved in a dedicated Centre of Excellence and through highly qualified and trained personnel. This is the main concept behind the switch to Kilcullen and does not mean that PSS is moving away from an area in which its achievements have been recognised by the Irish Security Industry; that is the provision of security services. It has been wrought about by a vacuum; a need for the industry to raise the bar in standards and to make those improvements uniform throughout the country. 'The late Pat Dunlea designed and built this purpose facility, and it overlooks the Liffey - we're moving there next week, the twentieth of December.' Recently Garda Commissioner, Fachtna Murphy, and Ruairi Brady the President of the ISIA (Irish Security Industry Association) awarded PSS and its representative Stephen McDermott, Director of Personnel, Provincial Security Services, with the QUALSEC Gold Award, in recognition of what Stephen says is partly due to'…quality training programmes and quality awareness seminars are the foundations on which PSS's success is built.' Karl says that advances in modern communications make the job somewhat easier but that customers still like to have a highly trained physical presence on site. He smiles and recalls a time before the advent of mobile phones, 'I took a call one from a young girl of about ten who said, 'Is that the security place in Newbridge?' I said it was and she said , 'My daddy said to tell you that he wouldn't be working tonight,' and hung up - no name, no workplace, nothing - I had to scour the records to see who had a child of that age and where he was rostered and book in a replacement for him. I didn't know if she'd called from Tralee or Limerick - there was no such thing as caller ID.' The joys and despairs of it. Karl mentions the long 80 and 90 hours a week spent building up the business, that PSS was the first security company in Ireland to have had all their staff qualified for and issued with licences, in a system he had down the years strongly urged the authorities to introduce and implement. So then, forty-years clocked in, new premises, a state of the art training centre and offices, an official launch of this early in the New Year…there's no resting on laurels here, in one of the country's leading security services company. PROVINCIAL SECURITY SERVICES STRIKE GOLD Provincial Security Services has just won a prestigious award in recognition of the quality service which they provide to their customers. The company, based in Newbridge, Co Kildare is one of the first companies in Ireland to achieve a QUALSEC Gold standard which was presented by Garda Commissioner, Fachtna Murphy at a gala lunch in Clontarf Castle, Dublin on Thursday. QUALSEC is a new continuous improvement, quality assurance scheme, launched by the Irish Security Industry Association (ISIA) and managed by the National Security Inspectorate, through which companies can achieve a Silver, Gold or Platinum standard. Stephen MacDermott, Director of Personnel, Provincial Security Services is delighted with the company's success: "Achieving QUALSEC Gold underlines our commitment to our customer service and is a credit to every member of staff in our company. Quality Training Programs and Quality Awareness Seminars are the foundations on which PSS success is built. Management guarantees our impeccable quality record and guides the company towards our objective by providing quality leadership and ongoing training in the pursuit of a quality service. Every employee of the company is encouraged to be proactive in formulating ideas designed to improve the quality, reliability and performance of our service." Mr Ruairi Brady, President, ISIA, congratulated PSS on their success: "QUALSEC is a new quality assurance scheme which the ISIA has recently launched in a drive to raise standards and create a more professional security industry. Our vision for the future is that every security company in Ireland will strive towards the QUALSEC standard and that end-users of security services will demand QUALSEC approved providers. By achieving QUALSEC Gold, Provincial Security Services have now set the standard which other security companies should aim for. I would like to congratulate PSS on their commitment to quality service and wish them continued success for the future." Garda Commissioner, Fachtna Murphy echoed Mr Brady's sentiments: "QUALSEC is a worthy and significant way of focusing on the need for constant improvement in the security industry. This scheme quite rightly seeks to motivate the delivery of a quality service in the industry. The continuous improvement model will encourage security providers to strive for the higher standards and encourage end-users to only use services of legitimate quality-assured companies. I am aware from experience that achieving the required standards is demanding and I congratulate Provincial Security Services on being one of the first companies to attain the Gold standard and on achieving it at the first attempt." Provincial Security Services specialise in the provision of Quality Security, Mailroom and Reception Personnel to the Industrial and Commercial Sectors across Ireland with over 39 years experience. Extract from Leinster Leader 11 July 2008 PSA Licence Award PSS was among the first manned guarding security companies in Ireland to be awarded the new PSA Licence.