Field Support Services Group

Supporting a growing American client base including various sub contractors tot he State Department FSS is actively providing services in Columbia, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, with reach across the whole continent.

FSS is now accredited by the UK ‘Institute of Administrative Management’ the UKs oldest awarding/accrediting body and is certified to deliver ‘Level 3’ First Aid in the Workplace courses to students on the most up to date lifesaving practices and procedures for this level of first aid training.

FSS is also offering ‘Level 3 Mines/Industrial Site First Aid’ at the Client sites. This course is based on the ‘First Aid in the Workplace’ but has been tailored by our in-house Paramedics, to provide informed education tailored specifically to focus on injuries that are likely to occur in Industrial and Mining operations. FSS has provided site medical services to the Industrial and Mining sector since 2008 and benefits from a wealth of knowledge gained from first-hand experience in the sector, which we pass onto our students.

The Company intends to widen its course offerings further into 2023 with intermediate level FPOS and FREC 3 courses.

Following 4 years of major renovation and building works to the ‘Grade II listed’ Edwardian building, at the start of 2023 FSS is pleased to announce the opening of its ‘new’ Head Office, in Hereford UK.

The head office is now home to FSS medical training facility, where our UK based First Aid courses are delivered. It also houses the Global Operations Centre, 24-hour Tracking Centre, Administrative Offices and Board Meeting Room.

The renovation works included complete re-roofing, strip out and replacement of electrical, plumbing and heating systems, traditional carpentry work, traditional sand and lime 3 coats re-plastering and painting of the entire building plus the implementation of sympathetic but new fixtures and fittings throughout.

With international Covid-19 related restrictions diminishing, FSS experienced a welcome resurgence in demand for services, with both returning and new clients pushing forward international projects and business development which had been put on hold by the restrictions of the previous 2 years.

FSS secured a major new contract in Nigeria supporting a US Defence manufacturer (More information can be found on the ‘Project Insights’ page) and also successfully delivered 62 short term taskings and assessments, predominantly in Africa and The Middle East, but also wider afield in South America and Europe to other Clients.

FSS also secured a major contract variation order for additional services to an existing contract in Mali and welcomed on board an expatriate doctor and 2 expatriate paramedics as a result.

At the start of 2020 the world was rocked by the rapid global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in the most stringent international travel restrictions seen in our lifetimes. As with many other industries, the demand for international Risk Management, Medical and Project Support services collapsed resulting in many smaller players folding under the loss of trade.

FSS continued to service its major contracts of the time in Afghanistan and Nigeria. Despite a fall in demand for new services of 97% based on the previous year, the company persisted through these difficult times and focused its efforts on the development of new services, specifically medical training services.

In March 2019 FSS Group secured a major contract for risk management and life support services in Afghanistan from a US State Department Defense Contractor. The requirement was to provide full life support and secure B6 transportation with PSD services for up to 56 US personnel. Operating on the ‘Milair’ side of Kabul airbase but quartered off-base in Kabul city.

FSS provided secure B6 armoured transportation, armed expatriate and TCN bodyguards and drivers, expatriate management team and provision of accommodation, including all life support off-base, risk management and intelligence monitoring, EEP and training of the local support staff. The Contract term was 4 years but it unexpectedly closed with the US pull-out of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Located in the ancient Heritage Area of Hereford City. The building is a 5000 Sq Ft (465 Sq M) and ‘Grade II listed’ Edwardian building with a board room and 11 separate offices on 3 floors overlooking Hereford Cathedral which is home to one of the oldest maps in existence – the Mappa Mundi and also 100 metres from the ancient 11th century river bridge.

Working closely with the Heritage Planning Department of Hereford City Council the Company has project managed the complete external and internal renovation of the building to complete critical and essential repairs, improve its appearance, maintain its longevity and make the interior better suited to a modern office environment. The renovations were finally completed in last quarter 2022 and is undergoing kitting out to house our Operations Centre, 24-hour Tracking Centre, Employee Offices, a Training Room and a Board Room. With the continued growth of the business and expansion of our in-house team, we believe the new refurbishments will provide a historically interesting and visually appealing character building, better suited to our needs.

The Company has been using temporary offices since 2019 and is looking forward to the new occupation. Please jump forward to our 2023 history line!

In 2017 FSS was invited to undertake a pre-construction project risk assessment for the Australian based mining company Birimian Gold and their Malian subsidiary ‘Timbuktu Ressources SARL’ for the potential establishment of the fist commercial lithium mine and processing plant in the Sikasso region of Mali.

Following the completion of these assessments, using the Liberia models of 2010 FSS has moved on to secure executive protection, guarding and medical service provision for the project.
In 2023 the Company has a full site medical team, which includes an FSS Clinic with expatriate GP services, a site Ambulance Service with expatriate paramedics and LN EMTs and Nurses.

FSS Mali SARL holds its registered office in Bamako and its local shareholding partner has since enabled the development of services in neighbouring regions, with short term assignments having been delivered in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger and Mauritania since its inception.

In July and August 2016 FSS provided an investigation team to a Client operating in a west African oil producing nation facing a class action lawsuit related to oil pollution. The FSS Client wanted to build a case to refute claims the riverline, water table and land contamination which had resulted in severe depletion of fish stocks and contamination of farmland, drinking and well water was result of illegal ‘bunkering,’ and pipeline siphoning by locals and sabotage and not poor production and pollution control.

The team spent 2 months working in local communities, taking samples, interviewing those affected and creating a complete case file with proven chain of exhibit custody. The investigation had to take account of and work around an ongoing insurgency by armed militias with a history of kidnap, murder and genocide.

One of the largest Pacific White Shrimp farms in the world contacted FSS for support in tackling unprecedented levels of organised criminal level poaching which had spiralled out of control. (Shrimps are worth more than Cocaine!) This was a particularly high-risk venture which the FSS Founder handled personally. Through conducting detailed security and loss reduction assessments, facility security assessments and gathering of local intelligence, methodologies for loss reduction and countering armed and violent poaching gangs were presented.

Improvements in security architecture, surveillance equipment, guarding resources, employee management, intelligence gathering and stock monitoring were implemented through a protracted programme of improvement. These implementations by the Client resulted in significant yield increases in the following harvests.

In 2014 FSS Liberia found itself in the midst of the Ebola Pandemic which severely impacted Liberia and neighbouring countries, resulting in many international businesses closing operations and retreating out of the country.

For our mining Clients FSS medical staff created an Ebola emergency response team, imported protective equipment from the UK, set up screening checkpoints, an isolation facility, worked with local village elders to raise awareness of contamination control and dealing with many sick patients in the process.

This approach was instrumental in maintaining the continuity of client operations. FSS partnered with CDG Global and the Company base at Beverly Hills was used as an administration and logistics hub to support 5 CDG Global Ebola field isolation facilities until the Pandemic was declared over.

FSS had been providing risk management consultancy and EEP services on an ad-hoc basis but in 2013, capitalising upon growing notoriety in the Middle Eastern security and risk management sector, by entering into a full and legally binding teaming agreement with a dormant Jordanian Security Company, which agreed to trade as “FSS Jordan.” The Company funded offices in Amman, to act as the regional hub for managing operations in the Middle East.

FSS Jordan quickly secured a prestigious guarding contract at the ‘King Hussein Business Park.’ the commercial hub of Amman, likened to Canary Wharf, London. The park hosted over 40 mainly global businesses and 3,600 employees at the time. FSS provided an extensive armed guard force, facilitating access control, static guards, patrolling guards and an armed response team within the business park.

FSS Jordan went on to secure the largest national guarding contract in Jordan, with ‘Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan’ and their subsidiary ‘Arab Potash Company.’ In excess of 120 guards were deployed at ‘Amman’ Head Offices, ‘Safi’ Production Plant and ‘Aqaba Port’ potash loading terminals. The guards force were originally trained by an FSS expatriate training team following a fusion of the UK SIA and South African POSLEC SITA Guard Force Training Course syllabi. Other services included tracking, HSE investigations, executive protection and armed response services. The contract was directed by a resident FSS expatriate manager with a strong LN management and supervisory team.

Potash Corporation contributed 52% of Jordanian GDP at that time and recognising the critical nature of this key asset the contract was nationalised by the Ministry of Public Order and FSS Jordan personnel were replaced by the National Gendarmerie on 31st December 2018.

Since its inception FSS had by now supported many executive protection taskings and risk assessments in Johannesburg and Cape town, FSS established an expatriate manager and formed a teaming agreement with a local security company resident in Johannesburg. The Company secured a long term contract with Nomura the Japanese banking group for the provision of executive protection teams in Cape Town and Johannesburg (on the back of such services provided in London) which ran until COVID forced the withdrawal of the Client staff in 2020. It enabled the company to further establish itself and develop a wider range of services in the region.

FSS remains well established in the South African Risk Management sector and continues to provide a wide range of services to international clients.

FSS has worked closely with many leading international news agencies over the years, supporting front-line journalists by providing local national ‘fixers,’ security co-ordination, medical support and logistical services.

The ‘Arab spring’ was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. This resulted in an increase in journalist activity in the region, which saw FSS support several major news outlets, documenting these high-risk events.

Coupled with the Arab Spring, Libya was also entangled in a civil war. FSS provided security and medical services to news teams documenting fighting in Libya including within the siege of Misrata, capture of Zimbabwean mercenaries at Benghazi, and air and artillery strikes against Tobruk. FSS ran resupply and personnel rotation runs through Alexandria and Egypt.

Following in the success of FSS operations in Nigeria, Namibia, Niger, Malawi and an increasing reputation for supporting NGO and mining sector clients in Africa; FSS secured projects with the ‘Richard & Betsy DeVoss Foundation, the founders of Amway Corporation,’ ‘and major contracts with mining Clients BHP Billiton’ and ‘DRA Global’ supporting their mining operations in Liberia.

With local shareholding partners FSS Group Liberia Inc established a wide range of services including Medical, Life Support and Risk Management. The company established x2 medical clinics with expatriate doctors and paramedics, with local nurses and support staff at BHP Billiton sites (Jackie -2) in Sanniquellie in Nimba County and at New Liberty in Bong County. The Company established a secure compound in Beverly Hills, Monrovia to facilitate complete life support. The Company provided guarding and executive protection services, as well as supporting with contingency planning and owned its own fleet of 6 trucks, 3 ambulances and 2 x clinics.

FSS is still operating in Liberia and able to provide a full range of services.

Capitalising on growing demand for risk management services in Pakistan, FSS Group registered FSS Pakistan PVT Ltd, the groups first registered entity in country. The company successfully secured national guarding contracts with ‘Proctor & Gamble’ at all of their Pakistan sites including the corporate offices at Harbour View Karachi and manufacturing facilities at Port Qasim and Hub Baluchistan.

The Company supported the Bill & Melinda Gates Polio vaccination Project across Pakistan from 2010 until 2018 by provision of secured apartments in the Diplomatic Enclave, with full life support, secure transportation, expatriate risk managers and LN security teams. Contracting was widened and FSS supported the BMGF Polio vaccination projects in Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The FSS Pakistan company has offices in Karachi and Islamabad and FSS continues to provide a range of security and risk management services to international clients in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and other areas across Pakistan.

FSS secured the highly prestigious ‘7 Cities Crime Reduction’ training project and were contracted by the ‘Nigerian Ministry of Police’ to deliver bespoke training to combat rising crime levels in Nigerias major cities, a 5-year strategic training programme was designed and delivered to the FCT Police Command Headquarters in Abuja focusing on five key areas of policing; Scenes of Crime, Detective Skills and Scene of Crime Investigation, Public Order Policing, Border Policing and SWAT.

Each 4-week course specialised and delivered by an Training Team of former Metropolitan Police and South Africa Police Service subject matter experts, but each package also included a common syllabus of human rights, first aid, weapon handling, range work, command & control, report writing and communication procedures delivered by ex military personnel.

During the first three-month phase FSS trained 250 Nigerian Police Force Officers and a cadre of permanent instructors at the Police Training Academy Kaduna.

A long association began with Australian uranium miners ‘Paladin Energy’ and their subsidiary ‘Langer Heinrich Pty Ltd.’ Over the following 8 years FSS went on to provide pre-construction risk and vulnerability analysis for new uranium mine sites in Naukluft Namibia, Kayalakera Malawi, and Agadez Niger.

FSS provided executive protection to senior management teams. Wrote detailed site security and risk management plans. Recruited, trained and managed local site guard forces. Provided loss reduction managers and created emergency evacuation plans. The project closed in 2017 following the global recession which severely impacted the uranium mining industry.

In 2008 FSS secured its second major contract. This time in Pakistan, contracted by ‘Procter & Gamble’ to provide executive protection services to the expatriate project management team. Including secure transport, risk analysis, emergency evacuation planning, medical planning.

FSS also went on to provide IOSH site managers to ensure HSE safety practices were complied with during the build. The project led to the registration of FSS Pakistan Pvt Ltd in 2010.

FSS secured its first major contract in 2007 with ‘Aconex’ an Australian IT and project management company contracted by the Japanese construction consortium ‘Cojaal’ during the 8 year build of the Tunis-Algiers highway.

FSS were sub-contracted to provide expatriate and LN security personnel, secure transportation and situational monitoring of risks and events, emergency evacuation planning by land/sea/road/air for the Aconex Algeria and Dubai operations was completed. FSS continued to support the operation until the risks associated with the Arab Spring diminished in 2012.

In 2006 founding member Andrew Melville MM registered the first FSS company Field Security Services UK Ltd. Specialising in security and risk management consultancy by capitalising on the knowledge gained during an extensive 23-year career in the British Army and Special Forces enhanced by a further 8 years in the private security sector.