The changing face of Guyana as a place to do business is continually being manifested in the types of goods and services offered by providers that are moving to ‘put down roots’ here. With oil & gas-related investments continually swelling the investor ranks, an increasing number of what can be termed strategic support services are gravitating towards this previously largely ignored part of South America. Where costly investments continue to become attracted to what is now a swiftly unfolding multi-billion dollar oil & gas industry, an eagle-eyed international security sector has become aware of what has become, arguably, one of the more potentially lucrative security markets in the developing world.
While there is evidence that our local security service providers have been upping their own game both through training and investment in upgraded security equipment, the year 2021 has witnessed the launch of Tactical Combat Supplies Guyana Limited (TCS), a security service that looks directly to the high end of the sector.
The company’s Corporate Sales Manager, Nigel Collymore, who speaks for the management of TCS told Stabroek Business that while it may appear that the recent ‘opening’ of TCS suggests that it was intended to coincide with the rising level of oil & gas-related overseas investor interest in Guyana, what exists today is the fruition of what had been “a work in progress.” For several years TCS has been steadily seeking to shape its services here to meet what it perceives to be the country’s needs, simultaneously immersing itself in engaging the authorities on the thicket of requirements necessary to become licensed to be a part of the security sector, and sitting down with the private sector, one of its key target markets.
What TCS seeks to do, Collymore explained, is to raise the security ‘bar’ here, helping to elevate the sector from what, in times past, had been perceived as the ‘night watchman’ level, to a stage where it can respond adequately to the range of security requirements that have become necessary at this stage of the country’s development. “We believe that there is a need not just for enhanced training but for the availability of equipment that matches the level of service that we seek to provide,” Collymore says.
What is a decidedly modest Alexander Street, Kitty storefront masks an interior that displays a range of security-related apparel and accoutrements almost certainly not to be found on display in any other commercial premises around the country. Firearms are not on display here but the company’s service also extends into the provision of those.
To add to the bewildering array of security-related apparel, protective gear, and other accoutrements available inside the store, TCS has brought to Guyana a surveillance vehicle equipped with what is perhaps best described as an operations room from which security-related observation can be done. More of these, the company says, will be imported to help raise the local security service bar.
Setting aside its substantive business interest, TCS’s showroom also stocks hunting and camping gear. The store, however, is crammed with a range of low-intensity security equipment. The company’s Personnel and ‘K-9 Training are also run by Joanne Van Cooten, the ‘other half’ of the TCS partnership. Now ‘up and running’, TCS says that it is now focused on selling a stepped up level of security to consumers. And in this regard the company has already made its presence felt through social media with its daily Facebook and Instagram platforms.
That being said, Collymore told Stabroek Business that the bewildering array of equipment which TCS is offering does not allow the company to lose sight of the fact that above everything else it seeks to deliver a standard that will not just enhance the local comfort level but help to send a signal to a curious international community that the country, in those respects that particularly matter, is ready to do business.
