Investment proves effective

The investment being made by retailers in security measures is paying off: from June 2003 to June 2004 shrinkage through theft and other losses in Europe went down by 2.2 per cent in terms of sales. One of the reasons for this can be seen in European retailers' involvement in theft prevention and security measures: companies spent € 7.2 bn on such measures. Taking into consideration the 15 current EU members plus Norway and Switzerland, that is € 299 mio more than for the same period a year before. In addition to the money spent on security, the € 25.793 bn worth of losses through theft make a significant difference to the bottom line. Altogether the costs attributable to crime at the expense of the retail trade in Europe add up to € 32.999 bn. That makes € 71.52 per head of population – compared with € 75.28 the year before. These findings come from the fourth European Theft Barometer, which was published by the Centre for Retail Research (CCR) in Nottingham, UK, and Checkpoint Systems of Heppenheim, Germany. The study includes results from 24 states – and from seven of the new EU member countries for the first time.
Inventory shrinkage falling
Theft came to a total of € 25.793 bn and accounted for 84 per cent of the overall stock loss, which comprises crime-related shrinkage as well as wastage caused by internal errors.
The tiny RFID tags will in future be used for article surveillance...
Altogether shrinkage (theft, inventory discrepancies and wastage) amounted to € 30.783 for the period under consideration and fell by comparison with the previous year from 1.37 per cent to 1.34 per cent of turnover in the retail sector. This indicates a fall of 2.2 per cent in a continuation of the positive trend recorded for the previous year in the countries of western Europe. The companies questioned for the survey attribute this result to the investment made by retailers in security measures.
High cost of shoplifting
Thieving customers cause 48 per cent of the losses (€ 14.635 bn), followed by employee theft in excess of € 9 bn and a share of 29 per cent. Significant here is the fact that the average value of goods stolen by employees comes to € 537.85, whereas the average for thieving customers is only € 78.56.
Source tagging gains ground
Expenditure on security runs to over € 7 bn. The major share of 57 per cent goes to financing security staff, down from 60 per cent in the previous year 2003. In contrast, the proportion of expenditure on technical security equipment has…