Sireletso Protective Group Business Plan — Service Offering and Revenue Model

The service lines from close protection to risk consulting, how each is contracted and priced, and what drives revenue per officer.

Service Offering and Revenue Model

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  • 6.1 Service lines
  • 6.2 Margin structure and revenue mix
  • 6.3 The wage escalation problem

6.1 Service lines

Service line

Unit

Monthly volume

Rate (R)

Gross margin

Dedicated close protection details

officer-months

34

46 000

36%

Ad-hoc and event close protection

officer-days

210

4 900

44%

Protective driving and secure transport

driver-months

11

39 000

32%

Residential and estate protection

guard-months

40

14 800

26%

Risk advisory and threat assessment

assignments

2.5

58 000

72%

High-risk escort and special operations

deployments

4

44 000

40%

Accredited training academy

learners

7

29 500

55%

Volumes above are expressed at the Year 1 exit run rate.

Service line

Character

Dedicated close protection details

The annuity core; a 24-hour principal consumes four to five officers

Ad-hoc and event close protection

Day-rate premium for short notice; the entry point for new corporate relationships

Protective driving and secure transport

Carries both a full-time officer cost and the vehicle

Residential and estate protection

The lowest-margin line; retained defensively, grown slowest

Risk advisory and threat assessment

Highest margin, almost no deployed headcount; grown fastest

High-risk escort and special operations

Multiple officers per deployment; the highest liability exposure

Accredited training academy

Manufactures the scarcest input in the business

The dedicated close protection line is the annuity core of the business. A full-time protective detail assigned to a named principal, billed monthly per officer. A single principal requiring genuine 24-hour coverage consumes four to five officers once rotation, leave and relief are accounted for, which is why this line dominates both revenue and deployed headcount. Gross margin at 36 per cent reflects that officer remuneration, benefits, bargaining council contributions and equipment amortisation are all direct costs of the line.

Residential and estate protection at 26 per cent is the lowest-margin line in the business and is deliberately grown more slowly than every other. It is retained because principals expect an integrated solution and because a competitor holding the residential contract has a route to the protective work, not because it is attractive in its own right.

Risk advisory and threat assessment at 72 per cent is by a wide margin the highest-margin line, it consumes almost no deployed headcount, and it is the line that most differentiates the Company from a supplier of bodies. It is grown fastest in the projection for that reason.

6.2 Margin structure and revenue mix

Gross margin by service line against revenue share
Figure 8. Gross margin by service line against revenue share.

Service line

Share of revenue

Gross margin

Year 1 revenue

Year 2 revenue

Year 3 revenue

Year 4 revenue

Year 5 revenue

Dedicated close protection details

47%

36%

16.02

30.83

38.05

44.54

50.37

Ad-hoc and event close protection

16%

44%

5.45

10.50

12.95

15.16

17.15

Protective driving and secure transport

9%

32%

3.07

5.90

7.29

8.53

9.65

Residential and estate protection

8%

26%

2.73

5.25

6.48

7.58

8.57

Risk advisory and threat assessment

11%

72%

3.75

7.22

8.91

10.42

11.79

High-risk escort and special operations

6%

40%

2.04

3.94

4.86

5.69

6.43

Accredited training academy

3%

55%

1.02

1.97

2.43

2.84

3.22

The mix shifts deliberately across the projection. Residential guarding is grown at below the blended rate, while advisory, training and dedicated details are grown above it. That mix improvement is real but it is working against a headwind, explained in the following section.

6.3 The wage escalation problem

Structural gross margin compression
Figure 9. Structural gross margin compression.

Direct cost in this business is overwhelmingly protective labour. Remuneration in the private security sector escalates under sectoral determination and bargaining council arrangements, and those increases have historically run above headline consumer inflation. The model assumes contract rates escalate at 6.0 per cent per annum while direct labour escalates at 6.7 per cent.

The consequence is a slow, structural compression of gross margin, from 38.5 per cent in Year 1 to 37.5 per cent in Year 5, even before any competitive pressure on rates. This is not a modelling pessimism; it is the defining margin dynamic of South African security services, and it is the reason the plan shifts mix toward advisory and training rather than simply selling more officer-months.

Next section7. Operations