High stakes on the high seas

NEPTUNE P2P GROUP I PROFILE

HIGH STAKES

ON THE HIGH SEAS

When trouble comes knocking at sea or on land, Neptune P2P Group is the company you want to have on your side. Owned and operated by ex-British and French Special Forces operatives. Neptune P2P Group provides a range of highly specialised safety and security services to safeguard people, businesses and their assets. In an exclusive interview with Richard Hagan, Carl Sykes, co-founder and Group Managing Director, pulls back the curtains on the private security industry.

Cast your mind back to 2009. Piracy off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean, is at an all-time high. Merchant ships transiting one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes are being relentlessly threatened and attacked by armed Somali pirates in small boats. Seafarers and their ships are taken hostage, often for several months or even years at a time while criminal syndicates negotiate eye-watering ransoms with ship-owners for their release.

While the world’s naval forces scrambled to find solutions to the piracy issue and to mount a defence, Carl Sykes and his brotherin-law saw the perfect business opportunity.

Having both completed their careers in the UK’s Special Boat Service, the two men were trained and experienced in the skills necessary to provide merchant ships with the protection services they so desperately needed. And thus it was that the early foundations for the company that would become Neptune P2P Group, were laid.

Early days and a strategic merger

Neptune Maritime Security was formed in 2009 in the coastal town of Poole on the South Coast of England. In 2012, it relocated its headquarters to Dubai, UAE, in order to be closer to its main areas of operations in the AMEA region.

That same year, Neptune Security Group was officially founded. Having previously operated its security teams exclusively in the maritime domain, the company would now expand its

Carl Sykes, co-founder and Group Managing Director

services beyond maritime and into security risk management services, intelligence-gathering services, regional security management, and land-based protective services.

The company’s next major milestone was reached in 2016 when it merged with an industry competitor in Manchester named Port to Port. The company’s name was changed to reflect its new structure, henceforth becoming the Neptune P2P Group. In 2017 the group extended its suite of companies to include its French partners, Port2Port LPC, also owned and operated by former French Special Forces. This key strategic move enabled Neptune P2P Group to support the French and European Union Maritime Cluster as well as engage with key French-speaking countries across North and West Africa.

With the merger complete, Neptune P2P Group continued to expand its services and operational regions as new threats to commercial shipping emerged, particularly in West Africa. However, this growth has not been without drama.

“Neptune P2P Group was one of the first companies to provide this kind of service,” said Carl Sykes, co-founder and Group Managing Director. “There was resistance to it from the shipping industry. It was the first time since the Second World War, that armed guards were used on merchant vessels. But the facts speak for themselves; not one vessel with armed guards on board has been hijacked in 12 years.”

High-tech facilities

The company employs 30 staff and around 400 contractors distributed between the HQ in Dubai and its operational support offices in the UK and France. As a primarily serviceoriented company, the calibre of its workforce is critical to the company’s success.

“Our talented and motivated people within the organisation are our biggest asset,” Mr Sykes confirmed. “We have a flat management structure and we prioritise modern management thinking. Thanks to this, we enjoy great levels of staff retention and loyalty, with many of our staff having been with us for over 10 years. We look after them and they look after us.”

Whilst the company is deliberately light on physical assets, one resource that it is especially proud of is its proprietary

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NEPTUNE P2P GROUP I PROFILE

tracking software system, as Mr Sykes explained: “We’ve got a lot of people moving around all of the time; the system integrates with our finances, operations, resources and human assets, improving management efficiency across all aspects of our business. It means that a person who was previously handling six or seven tasks, can now handle 15 or 20, so it’s almost trebled our operational output, enables us to be lean and made us much more competitive.”

Special recognition of Special Forces

One of the company’s unique selling points is the Special Forces pedigree of its ownership and management teams. Mr Sykes and his brother-in-law, the co-founders of the business, are both drawn from the UK’s prestigious Special Boat Service – considered one of the world’s first-ever special operations units and still widely recognised as one of the best.

While Mr Sykes was understandably coy on going into any specific details of his or the other founders’ pasts, he was able to reveal that one of the group’s co-founders was awarded a Military Cross for action in Afghanistan. Mr Sykes himself has specific expertise in hostage rescue situations, with one particular mission of note taking place during the conflict in Sierra Leone.

He was, however, quick to point out that their company requires the skills of much more than just people with Special Forces experience.

“We’re not just a team of former Special Forces. Our staff come from a variety of backgrounds including logistics and legal professions. We are an equal opportunities focused company with a good proportion of women in the team, for example, our Financial Director and Marketing Manager. You need people with different skill sets to run a successful business.”

Not all guns and glory

It was clear from our conversation that the general public’s perception of risk management operatives and private security operations, thanks mainly to Hollywood, is a far cry from the reality. Most importantly, Mr Sykes stressed, it’s not all guns and shooting. The company operates within the confines of a highly regulated, professional industry that is subject to regular audits by various stakeholders.

“We’re not mercenaries – we leave the offensive action to Armed Forces and governments. We protect people, businesses and their assets. We don’t, for example, go hunting pirates, we’re there to deter them. If we see a potentially threatening situation developing, we move away from it and avoid it.

“We are strictly regulated and there are many laws we must adhere to,” said Mr Sykes. “We’re regularly audited by our clients and government bodies. Remember, we have controlled goods like firearms and body armour travelling around the world. Departments from the UK and French governments can – and do – walk in at any time to check we are compliant with the regulations.

“We’re mission-enablers. We’re here to help people get on with their business in a safe and secure manner.”

Superyacht and crew security

A key sector of focus for Neptune P2P Group is the fast-growing superyacht market. These luxurious, high-tech vessels full of expensive equipment, possessions and even, potentially, the owners, make them a prime target for those with criminal intent.

In one such instance, Neptune P2P guards stationed on a superyacht as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden had to act to protect the vessel and its crew.

“Some vessels came towards us, it looked like they were coming straight at us and we had to assume they had criminal intentions. We pointed our firearms at them and as soon as we showed them we were armed, they turned away,” Mr Sykes recalled.

“Armed guards on board is an immediate response, an immediate antidote to threats at sea,” he added. “When perpetrators see firearms, 99% of the time it will deter them because the threat of retaliation is there, it’s real, and it’s right now.”

It’s not only the vessels who are at risk but also the crews. Neptune P2P Group has developed an industry-focused crew safety course to ensure that superyacht crew are safe while visiting ports and marinas around the world.

“Crews are often young university graduates or gap year type students. Some can be quite naive,” Mr Sykes noted. “We’ve developed a training course called SAFE – Situational Awareness in Foreign Environments. We train the crew to recognise hostile threats, how they can improve their personal security and on situational, cultural and kidnap awareness. We also cover restraint techniques and day-to-day planning.”

Operating in the complex and demanding world of security, Neptune P2P Group guarantees the safety of people, assets and businesses across some of the world’s most challenging regions. Neptune P2P Group continues its fearless expansion into the world’s threat hotspots and in return, is seeing positive year-on-year growth.

In conclusion, Mr Sykes highlighted the company’s focus on continued staff development: “We constantly look at our people and how we can improve and ensure that we retain corporate knowledge. We’ve invested in our people. We believe that one well-trained and empowered staff member can do the job of a number of unmotivated, under-invested individuals.” n