Using hurdles as opportunities for growth has secured K4 Group’s success

From providing security for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral to providing medical training for thousands of people, K4 Group has grown exponentially over the past seven years. Group CEO Arsalan Khan talks to Sarah Dale about pivoting challenges into opportunities as he plans to grow the business further.

Being able to pivot in business is crucial to surviving when challenges arise – and K4 Group has this flexibility and foresight in bucketloads.

Founded in 2018 by Arsalan and Tamaryn Khan, the company started out as an events management and planning company providing security services to the public and private sectors.

When Covid hit the UK and the first lockdown occurred in March 2020, all events stopped overnight, and K4 Group CEO Arsalan Khan admits they were considering closing the business. “All our work had finished, so we were looking at shutting down,” he explains. “But we ended up providing covid marshalls – a job that never occurred before Covid or since! That came into play because we had a lot of manpower. We quickly did some upskilling and provided covid marshalls for the NHS, retail stores and local businesses to maintain social distancing.

“We went from shutting down the business to making £1-2 million a month. We went from zero revenue to £20 million a year overnight. We had a big pool of casual workers for events, so we deployed them to help with the pandemic.” went from shutting down the business to making £1-2 million a month. We went from zero revenue to £20 million a year overnight. We had a big pool of casual workers for events, so we deployed them to help with the pandemic.”

At the time, they had an office management team of five people and 300 casual workers registered with the company. “We rejigged a few parts of the business, changed our approach and remortgaged our family home,” adds Arsalan.

Events began to start up again and the security aspect of the business grew to cover a range of services, including manned/ static guarding, front of house and concierge, canine security services, gatemen and traffic marshalls, key holding, mobile security patrols, and alarm response, as well as providing events consultancy and planning. They now provide alarm response to 700 properties.

Next, they realised that it would be more beneficial for the company and clients if they brought the medical provision for events in-house and so K4 Medical was formed.

Arsalan Khan, K4 Group CEO

They added a doctor and medic to the team, acquired Primary Ambulance Services, and started providing a range of courses from door supervisors to first response emergency training.

On the events side, they have worked on some of the biggest events in the UK, including the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (where they deployed 700 members of staff), the Queen’s funeral and manning the queue to visit the late monarch when she was lying in state at Westminster Hall (providing 400 staff members a day), and tours for big names in the music industry.

“Every time we have hit a problem or a hurdle, we have been very flexible,” he says. “None of our team is afraid to get their hands dirty and they can adapt to anything.”

K4 Group, which is the parent company of K4 Security, K4 Medical, K4 Training and K4 Global, has its head office in Hounslow with regional offices in Leeds, Peterborough and Cardiff and overseas offices in Pakistan and Turkey.

They are a SIA-approved contractor which now employs 71 managers and 60 administrative staff members and a freelance team of between 4,500 and 5,000 people. Out of 7,000 security firms in the UK, about 700 are part of the approved contractors list for the Home Office including K4, a fact Arsalan is extremely proud of.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” says Arsalan. “Our core senior management team is very dedicated, very driven and very flexible and we have great staff.”

Arsalan’s wife, Tamaryn, rejoined the business at the start of the year after being a stay-at-home mum for a couple of years to look after their three daughters aged between nine and five.

“Having my wife in the business definitely helps with our work-life balance,” he says.

“We have amazing family support and amazing team support. A lot of the management team have kids, and we understand the work-life balance. We all support each other; we are like a family unit within the business.

“I’m one of those people that doesn’t mind change; I really enjoy challenges. My goal is to do whatever I can to help our customers. We are driven by solving challenges rather than money, which makes us competitive and resilient. If there is a problem from our senior leadership team to staff working on the ground, no-one walks away until a job is complete. Everyone is willing to change and adapt – and that’s always been the key to our success to our resilience and growth.”

Looking towards the future, Arsalan says they are excited to commence work on a whole range of projects secured during last year’s boost on raising brand awareness, attending exhibitions and networking to meet more clients.

“This year will all be about growth and working on new projects but remaining as committed as ever to our existing customers,” he adds. “We are small enough that everything and everyone matters within the business, and we have grown together.

Every customer matters to us. We have a big team behind us, so we are also large enough for our customers to trust us with the bigger projects.” www.k4group.co.uk