Our history

Our history starts with the evolution of multiple companies in Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Starting in 1901, Marius Hogrefe started a small guarding company by the name of Kjøbenhavn Frederiksberg Nattevagt. Five years later (1906) Sophus Falck established an independent fire and rescue service called Redningskorpset which started operating the very first automobile ambulance service in Scandinavia. 

By 1930, Falck became a nationwide operator in Denmark.

Meanwhile, around the same time, the Philip-Sørensen family established Securitas AB (1934) in Sweden.

A year later in the United Kingdom, Night Watch Services was initiated (1935) by Former Liberal Cabinet Minister, Edward Shortt KC. The guards wore old police uniforms and protected apartment blocks on bicycles.

By 1950, the Philip-Sørensen family consolidated itself as Securitas International; whilst in the 1950’s Night Watch Services became Securicor. It only took a decade for Securicor to become a nationwide operator in the UK and expand into Africa and Asia.

In 1965 Jørgen Philip-Sørensen was appointed the managing director of his family’s UK business and within three years (1968), rebranded the family group of companies as Group 4 Total Security.

Over the next 20 years, Securicor, Falck and Group 4 all operated successfully across a range of sectors. Securicor established its Custodial Services operations in 1990. The following year (1991) Group 4 begins managing the first privatised prison in the UK, at HMP Wolds in Humberside.

At the start of the millennium (2000), Group 4 and Falck agreed a merger to become ‘Group 4 Falck’ - followed by a succession of international acquisitions of security companies in countries such as South Africa, the Czech Republic and France.

After entering the US security market via the acquisitions of  The Wackenhut Corporation, the second largest security services company in the US, and a Danish intruder alarm business, Group 4 Falck established themselves as a global brand.

At the same time, acquiring businesses in Canada, Africa, Europe, Asia and the US, established Securicor as a competitor and a global security company too.

Finalised in 2004, Securicor merges with Group 4 Falck to form Group 4 Securicor (G4S) and begins trading on the London and Copenhagen Stock Exchange.

Between 2004 - 2019, G4S made a number of strategic acquisitions before selling the majority of the conventional Cash Solutions businesses to The Brink's Company in February 2020.

In December 2020 the board of G4S recommended to shareholders the sale of the company to Allied Universal and the acquisition was completed in April 2021, after which G4S is delisted from the London and Copenhagen Stock Exchanges.

In 2022, Allied Universal acquired Attenti Group, one of the world’s leading electronic monitoring companies and combined it with G4S Monitoring Technologies. G4S Secure Solutions UK acquires T.S.S (Total Security Solutions), a major UK provider of security services in the retail sector.

Through the company's vast network of more than 800,000 employees, we continue to leverage global best practices in communities all over the world. With revenues of approximately $20 billion, we are able to serve and safeguard our customers, communities and people around the world.