UK security firm ATG sees opportunity to secure Expo 2020

The company, which produces temporary, permanent and retractable barriers that can used to prevent cars and other vehicles from entering pedestrian areas, said that it had received strong interest from the UAE government in securing public places.

In 2018, ATG saw record revenues of £17.5 million, which it expects will rise to £24 million this year, on the back of solid growth in the Middle East and Asia.

Following a fireworks display in Nice, France on July 14, 2016, a man drove a 20-ton rental truck into the crowd, killing 86 people.

Since then, more than 55 people have been killed in similar attacks, in countries such as Germany, Canada, Spain, and the UK. Governments have been racing to install defences to a form of attack that requires little expertise and limited resources.

“We’re pitching out to the Middle East, because Dubai has the Expo 2020 coming out,” in addition to a number of other large scale regional events, said Lucy Foster, marketing manager at ATG Access.

In the region, ATG said it has installed products at the Abu Dhabi Investment Centre, the Central Bank of Kuwait, the British Embassy in Baghdad, Saudi Arabia’s Jubail Industrial City and Ras Al Khair, and the Royal Palace in Bahrain.

“We have more projects in Abu Dhabi than we do in Dubai, but it’s catching up. There’s still a lot of projects going on here, there’s still investment,” Foster told Gulf News at the Intersec security exhibition in Dubai.

“It’s a growth market for us.”

In a sign of ATG’s interest in the region, Foster said the company had established a manufacturing base in Abu Dhabi, from which to serve the Middle East.

The company also deploys more permanent physical security, in use at locations such as Heathrow Airport, the US Federal Reserve, and the UK Supreme Court.

ATG’s retractable bollards are a popular choice with football stadiums, who routinely see upwards of 80,000 pedestrians approaching the venue each weekend, but need the surrounding roads to function as normal during the week. Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium is one such venue that employs retractable security measures.