Corps stays on at London’s Royal Opera House

Corps Security has renewed its partnership with London’s Royal Opera House, to deliver a full spectrum of security services at its iconic Covent Garden site.

Established as the Covent Garden Opera Company in 1946, the Royal Opera House brings together world-class performers and trailblazing creative teams. The site requires expert security services year-round, while presenting approximately 96 performances per season.

The renewed three-year partnership, which commences on 1 September 2022, will see Corps continue to develop the security offering on site, introducing new roles and innovative, state of the art training technologies.

Corps will provide a broad range of security service lines through an estate of dedicated full-time and support operatives – comprising a head of security, security operations manager, front of house personnel, control room staff, duty shift managers, patrolling and fire officers, and loading bay staff.

Its personnel will meet and greet artists and contractors at the stage door and perform vital operations for the Royal Opera House. Part of this involves working alongside the in-house visitor experience teams to provide a seamless, joined up customer service offer for staff, artists, and members of the public.

Corps has already begun a programme to introduce its award-winning virtual reality (VR) training capabilities to the Royal Opera House. This will enable operatives to receive training in immersive scenarios within familiar environments that are based on site-specific standards of operation, policies, and procedures. VR training has been shown to increase information retention by up to 75 per cent while reducing associated training costs by as much as 64 per cent.

Commenting on the new contract award, Paul Lotter, MD at Corps Security said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to continue our relationship with the Royal Opera House. As we introduce our innovative security capabilities, including VR and behaviour detection training, to this iconic venue we look forward to continuing to build on our already special relationship.”

Gabriela Gandolfini, Head of Visitor Services and Site Operations at the Royal Opera House, commented: “We are delighted that Corps, our current security services partner, has successfully retained the contract for security and stage door services following a rigorous tender process. We are looking forward to continuing to work with Corps over the coming years.”

The contract comes with the potential for extensions to reach a combined seven-year partnership.