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Press Release

BRC RETAIL CRIME SURVEY: COST OF CRIME UP, VIOLENCE AGAINST STAFF UP

19 October 2005

The British Retail Consortium’s 2004 Annual Retail Crime Survey, sponsored by ADT, has revealed a worrying picture of retail crime in the UK with the total cost of crime and violence against staff both showing significant increases since 2003.

The twelfth Retail Crime Survey, launched today (19 October) at the BRC’s Annual Retail Crime and Security Conference, showed that the impact of crime and crime prevention cost the retail sector £2.13 billion in 2004, a 9% increase from the £1.96 billion cost in 2003.

Looking across a five-year period, this cost is £11.2 billion or on average £2.24 billion per year.

Retailers spent £710 million on crime prevention in their stores throughout 2004. Over a five-year period the sector has spent £3.58 billion.

Despite this investment, customer theft is a growing problem, with the number of known incidents per 100 outlets increasing in 2004 to 3,385, up 18% from 2003. Since 2000 the incident figure has increased by nearly 50%.

Also, more worryingly, violence against retail staff is still of grave concern with verbal abuse rising by 35% compared to 2003 and physical violence also up 14% from 2003. This has been a continuing trend since 2000.

BRC Director General, Kevin Hawkins, says: “Over the past five years retailers have spent more than £3.5 billion on crime prevention, yet the losses over the same period have been more than double the value of this investment - more than £7 billion. This is an alarming figure.

“However, the most disturbing figure is the growing trend of verbal and physical violence experienced by retailers. Retail crime is not victimless; it leaves deep scars not only on business viability and retail staff, but also on the community with the significant costs of prevention often passed on to all threads of society.

“With the current culture of under reporting of retail crime, these figures may well only be the tip of the iceberg, which is why the BRC has recently launched the SCAR (Stop Crime Against Retail) campaign. We will be calling for Police to modify the system of crime reporting to encourage victims to report crimes and ensuring the Government works with the sector to raise awareness of the real impact of crime and violence against retail.”

Ken Scotland, National Accounts Director at ADT, says: “The figures confirm that retailers are facing challenging times. From corner to department stores the industry needs to ensure it addresses crime prevention in a holistic and integrated way - protecting staff and profits alike. This means implementing appropriate technology and using its data effectively through to training staff to deal with threatening behaviour. Crime prevention must be at the top of a retailer’s agenda and these results highlight the ongoing pressures they face to implement ever more innovate ways of tackling the issue.”



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British Retail Consortium

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