City Security, one of the biggest companies in Poland’s security services sector, posted an zł.85.7 million profit for 2012, compared to zł.72 million in 2011, a rise of some 19 percent. The security services provider plans further expansion on the Russian market this year.

Currently the firm guards the Gazprom pumping station in Saint Petersburg, and provides security for children’s toys and clothes stores Smyk throughout Russia. The company is currently in talks with other potential clients. Over the last three years City Security has increased its revenue from activities in the eastern markets (Russia and Ukraine) threefold.

“The Russian security market is similar to the Polish market 10 years ago. It’s full of red tape, lacks clear-cut and transparent regulations and is very fragmented,” Beniamin Krasicki, the company’s CEO, told daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita. “But for ambitious companies from Poland it’s a good time to take strategic positions there.”

In Poland, besides security for shopping malls and housing estates, City Security offers services to airports, logistics centers and military facilities. The firm also provided security for the Croatian, German, Greek, Polish and Spanish national soccer teams during the European soccer championships in Poland and Ukraine last summer.

While 78 percent of the company’s revenue comes from security services, it also provides catering and cleaning solutions, and installs security systems as well.

JC