By Al Edwards, Business Co-ordinator 
Kenny Benjamin
THE Guardsman Group, who severed its ties with Brinks and formed Guardsman Armoured, has outlined a number of new services to be offered by its new armoured division.
Speaking to the Financial Gleaner earlier this week, Guardsman Group boss, Mr. Kenneth Benjamin said: "The market is so untapped that although we control between 60 to 70 it. There is a huge percentage of economic activity that is presently not using the services of an armoured truck. Little grocery shops, hair dressing parlours and small businesses who traditionally use one of their assistants to bank their takings, can now use our services which are affordable, rather than continue with what is now very dangerous to do.
"On many of our routes we are picking up between 10 and 20 people so we try to apportion the cost of that route to all our clients on it."
The company will continue to service the ever growing number of ATM's and will encourage the banks to outsource their back office work. For instance, Mr. Benjamin pointed out, if someone went to a bank and wanted to lodge J$1 million rather than the teller waiting and counting the sum it should be bagged and sealed and given to a central sorting facility where counting takes place. This allows the teller to concentrate on customer service.
"Banks are coming around to this idea which is the way both North America and Europe are now going. We can now do all the back room operations for them."
Mr. Benjamin said that the armoured division will also service the new telecommunications companies and will carry the various cards which have a monied valuation. The telecoms companies bring in millions of dollars worth of telephone cards and Guardsman Armoured will continue to house and guard them and deliver them to distributors. Cable & Wireless is currently a major client.
The Brinks arrangement accounted for 3 per cent of Guardsman Group's turnover and after 25 years in business Guardsman was of the view it could do as good a job with its brand name indelibly imprinted on the public consciousness. Mr. Benjamin said that the company could undoubtedly generate more revenue using Guardsman trucks.
"Brinks has this global policy that unless they have control of its destiny it will not use the Brinks name, which means their holding in excess of 50 per cent of the shares. I was not prepared to sell to them and the time had come with Guardsman being 25 years old this year to rebrand and reorganise the Group. With the crime situation as it presently is in Jamaica we are one step ahead of Brinks. So we had to ask ourselves what are we getting from this deal? Using the Brinks name is very expensive, what with royalties and the rest of it we weren't getting a lot in return other than a brand name of which I think Guardsman is a stronger brand in Jamaica. This deal has worked out well for everybody," said Mr. Benjamin.
Despite the parting of the ways, both Brinks and Guardsman are still partners in their aircraft service business.
"Business people in Jamaica are getting more aware of the importance of security for their operations. In many cases it is the difference between your profit and your lost. If pilfering exceeds your profits then it leaves your business in a hell of a situation. With the competitive nature of the economy world wide people are getting aware of costs and pilfering is a big cost here in Jamaica. The ploy of passing on expenses to consumers can no longer work because there is always another company than can offer a service at a cheaper cost."
The unions have created a brouhaha about the formation of this new armoured company. Mr. Benjamin took the opportunity to address workers concerns.
"We have always had a good working relationship with the unions but when Brinks decided to leave Jamaica we had to close down the company named Brinks Jamaica. The new entity is not yet unionised. Once we have our structures in place and become a little more settled we will once again work with the unions. We will be adding new vehicles to the fleet and many will be equipped with electronic surveillance.
Guardsman Armoured started operations on August 01,2002.
