Holland & Barrett’s million-pound investment into new anti-theft technology across its store estate this year has helped to identify more than 600 repeat offenders.
The health and wellness retailer’s ramped up investment amid the current surge in retail crime includes 80 body cameras, new CCTV monitoring and security for 200 stores as part of a £70m spend on transforming its store estate.
It also rolled out retail crime reporting platform Auror across all its 780 UK and Ireland stores earlier this year.
Holland & Barrett said that since its launch, it has reported over 8,000 incidents of theft, acts of aggression or violence against staff.
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It has also been able to identify over 630 repeat offenders through the platform, which the retailer said allows it to “better support positive prosecutions from the police and keep communities safer”.
Holland & Barrett director of stores Darsh Chand told Retail Week that the platform is “designed to connect the dots between individuals and locations” and has already resulted in positive results.
He said it has helped to identify crime hotspots and better equip stores in those areas with security including body cameras and security guards.
A man was arrested in May for robbing five Holland & Barrett stores in Yorkshire and stealing products worth £20,000 in what the retailer said was one of its worst cases of shoplifting.
Holland & Barrett head of loss prevention Mark Williams added: “This investment in loss prevention reflects our steadfast commitment to making our stores safer for our customers and colleagues.
“We recognise that retail crime is a community problem and working collaboratively to adopt the latest new technology can help us to create a better impact faster.”
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