The security guard industry had two segments: (1) proprietary guards and (2) contract guards. While both types of guards performed similar services, a proprietary guard was an employee on the payroll of a non-security firm. Contract guards were "rented" from specialist suppliers like Pinkerton's, CPP, Wackenhut, and Baker Industries. The historical growth of the contract guard segment of the industry was due in part to companies concluding that they gained operating flexibility by contracting out their security needs as opposed to managing their own security operations. By late 1987, security guard services was a $10 billion industry growing at 6% a year. But the industry was also mature, fragmented and price competitive. As a result there was an ongoing trend toward consolidation at the expense of smaller, local guard companies whose employees were often imperfectly screened and poorly trained.