Serco Group

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Serco Group plc

Type	Public (LSE: SRP)
Founded	1929
Headquarters	Hook, England, UK
Key people	Kevin Beeston, Chairman Christopher Hyman, CEO
Industry	Business Services
Revenue	£2,810.7 million (2007)
Operating income	£123.2 million (2007)
Net income	£82.4 million (2007)
Employees	47,000 (2007)
Website	www.serco.com

Serco Group plc (LSE: SRP) is a Business Services company based in Hook, North Hampshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

1 Description
2 Operations
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Description

Serco was founded in 1929 as a United Kingdom division of the Radio Corporation of America and initially provided services to the cinema industry. It changed its name to Serco in 1987 and has been a stock exchange listed company since 1988. Serco's company motto is Bringing Service to Life.

The Guardian has called Serco 'probably the biggest company you've never heard of'^[1]. It has grown in recent years thanks to the ongoing privatisation of public services and outsourcing of government services in the UK.

[edit] Operations

Serco operates in various sectors:

Transport: Serco manages the Docklands Light Railway in London and Great Southern Railways in Australia. Serco also has a joint venture with NedRailways, the UK arm of Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, to operate passenger trains in the UK. Serco-NedRailways has a 25 year concession for Merseyrail in Liverpool and operates Northern Rail services in the north of England. Serco will operate the future Dubai Metro.^[2]. Serco formerly operated the Copenhagen Metro with Ansaldo STS, until selling its share with effect from January 1 2008.^[3] In addition, Serco Rail Operations operates infrastructure monitoring trains in the UK^[4]. Serco also operates speed camera systems throughout the UK and designs, writes & tests the software that controls the Matrix Message Signs, Signals, emergency roadside telephones (SOS) and traffic monitoring on England's motorway network including the National Traffic Control Centre.

Science: Serco manages the UK's National Physical Laboratory.

Detention:^[5] Serco supplies electronic tagging devices for offenders and asylum seekers. In Britain, Serco runs four prisons, a Young Offenders Institution and two Immigration Removal Centres. Serco is also responsible for transporting and detaining prisoners at several Law Courts across the country. In addition, Serco runs a Secure Training Centre in County Durham. Serco also operates Hunfeld Prison in Germany and Acacia Prison in Western Australia.

Defence: Serco holds defence contracts worldwide including the UK Government’s first modern outsourced contract for the operation and maintenance of the UK Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at RAF Fylingdales; contracts are also held for the operation and maintenance of RAF Brize Norton, RAF Halton and RAF Northolt in the UK and RAF Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic. Serco also provides support services to garrisons in Australia. Serco also manages many aspects of operations at the Defence College of Management and Technology in Shrivenham.

Aviation: Serco provides air traffic control services at international airports in Dubai, Bahrain and at some smaller airports in the USA. Since 2004 Serco have also had £5m a year from the US government to manage airports in Iraq.

Fire: Serco has now moved into the competative fire system maintenance and installation market. With the empoyment of a new head Jeff Pankhurst, this side of the busines is expected to grow and start threatening other more well established companies.

Health: Serco provide facilities management services at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Wishaw Hospital as well as healthcare services in London, Cardiff and Oxfordshire.

Education: Serco holds a 10 year contract with Bradford City Council to manage and operate the local education authority, providing education support services to the City's schools, and similarly manages and operates Walsall and Stoke-on-Trent local education authorities. Serco is also the provider of a Student information system, Facility, used in schools and colleges in several countries.

Driver's licensing: Serco, through a purpose-made division Serco DES, holds a 10 year, $114 million contract with the Province of Ontario to operate the province's DriveTest driver examination centres. These tests include vision, road, and knowledge tests for all persons seeking to become a licensed automobile driver in the province. ^[6]

Leisure: Serco operates a number of leisure centres across the UK including the Manchester Aquatics Centre, the aquatic venue for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Serco also administers a number of publicly funded websites in the UK, including the Business Link website.

Serco operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and North America, but the majority of its turnover still comes from the UK.