The opening month of 2014 may have brought some much-needed breathing space for businesses across the UK with signs that the UK economy is stabilising. But a new Retail Crime Survey 2013 shows that crime continues to undermine growth and profits.
Here, Steve Ross, Managing Director of Mul-T-Lock analyses the findings and suggests how the locksmith industry can step in to support retailers and protect against latest criminal trends.
The annual Retail Crime Survey 2013 from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) covers a cross-section of the UK retail industry, from large department stores to smaller retailers and pure online retailers. It found that nearly one in 20 stores was involved in a robbery during 2013.
Survey Specifics
The average cost of each incident tripled to £3,005, from £989 in the previous year and the number of total offences recorded at 2.7m across the sector, representing a nine-year high. The average cost of goods stolen has risen by 28%, to £109.
Customer thefts remain the most common retail crime, accounting for 83% of all incidents, despite having the biggest fall in reporting. The survey indicates there are 2m incidents of shoplifting a year in the UK retail sector as a whole, involving about £200m worth of goods.
In some areas, police forces have reported growing numbers of people stealing out of desperation and targeting essential items such as groceries rather than luxury goods.
Given the state of the UK economy, people have been turning to crime for lower value items as a way to look after themselves and their families.
But at the other extreme, organized crime gangs are systematically targeting high value items. The value of items in each incident has risen to £177, a 62% increase on 2012.
Costs increased for all crimes with the exception of shop break-ins. And now, retailers are spending more on efforts to protect their staff, stock and customers: £750,000 each on average, up 7%.
This is where a local professional locksmith, armed with the right product solutions can make a difference and ensure appropriate, cost effective high security measures are in place to protect property, visitors and staff against all latest trends in retail crime.
Time to Act
With the noted link between increasing theft and the economic climate we need to work together to continue to encourage retailers to review their security and show how any recommendations will only enhance the retail environment, not only in creating a safer place to work and shop, but also improve efficiencies, access control and key management.
For professional locksmiths, the important message is to break down the popular misconception that any investment in security is expensive and complicated with new access control or electromechanical technology to source, implement and maintain and ensure premises stay secure.
Simple, Cost Effective Security Upgrades
Mechanical locks and high security cylinder suites still provide the backbone for many premises’ security portfolio.
So even basic steps such as upgrading the door cylinders can make a significance difference.
We would recommend Mul-T-Lock Break Secure XP, which is a cylinder only BSi TS007 British Kitemark 3 star accredited solution to instant offer protection from cylinder manipulation attack.
Taking mechanical innovation one stage further for retailers, locksmiths can present FlexControl as a way to control entrance access with an easy-to-use, mechanical solution.
FlexControl is a euro profile cylinder with a user-controlled temporary lock-out facility that allows owners continuous access to the cylinder, but also provides the capability to remove access for other users as and when required. This temporary lock out functionality can be reversed quickly and simply by the owner when needed.
One of the key benefits of the Mul-T-Lock FlexControl solution is the opportunity for businesses to maximise their full security potential by reducing the amount of access control given. Having this access control solution is a cost-effective method that minimises long-term costs of having new security systems installed.
In summary, just these two examples show how retailers can invest in simple measures to improve security standards, but best working practices also need to be improved to help reduce retail crime, which is where presenting solutions such as FlexControl to actively manage keys and access control can help.
For more information on Mul-T-Lock’s range of product solutions or a technical FlexControl specification, please visit www.mul-t-lock.co.uk or follow @multlockuk on Twitter.