The Mills Group, which owns 85 convenience stores around the country, has appointed a security ‘heavyweight’ to crack down on instore crime.
Gary Archer will be responsible for cutting losses, which amount to tens of thousands of pounds each year, in the newly-created position as director of security.
He has held various senior security appointments and the Mills Group said he would be able to use his experience to fight shrinkage caused by shoplifting and internal pilferage, as well as improve the out-of-hours protection of the string of stores.
Archer worked in a number of security roles in London to becoming assistant head of security at Selfridges in Oxford Street throughout the 1980s. He has also been head of security at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge, has worked for a private security firm and was most recently head of security at Northern Electric.