Discount chain One Beyond is rolling out CCTV across its estate for the first time as it grapples with a dramatic rise in shoplifting in the cost of living crisis.
It is also employing security guards in about 40% of its stores, having previously had them in about 20%, in response to what it sees as a rise in organised shoplifting.
One Beyond was launched in 2019 by Chris Edwards Snr and Jnr, the father and son discount retail entrepreneurs who were also behind Poundworld from its inception as a market stall in the 1970s until its sale in 2015 to TPG Capital.
One Beyond chairman Chris Edwards Snr told The Grocer shoplifters had shifted from targeting single low-value fmcg products to sweeping the contents of an entire shelf into a bag before walking out.
“I’ll go out and stand on the shop floor, just to look at one of our shops, and you can practically see people [shoplifting],” he said.
“In the old days, shoplifting was a couple of kids coming in to nick a couple of things. Then, they couldn’t pinch anything costing more than £1, because that’s all we sold, but One Beyond has more expensive stuff.
“I think shoplifting has become more organised. We’ll get people come in and clear a whole shelf of bars of chocolate. They won’t just pinch one, they will pinch a shelf-full, into a bag.
“If it’s in an outer-box, where they’re supposed to take one out, they’ll just take the outer-box.
“A lot of expensive cleaning products and jars of coffee, that kind of stuff – it’s all resaleable. People who don’t want to pay the full price, regular shoplifters will now supply them.”
“We’re installing CCTV in every shop, where we used to just do it in big ones or vulnerable ones,” he said. “We’re going stronger on security guards than we used to.”
One Beyond was founded as One Below, selling everything for £1 or less. It introduced the new name last year, indicating a change in tack to much of its range costing £1 or more, future-proofing the business against inflation.
Edwards said the highest priced products sold, such as electrical products costing up to £30, were also being targeted.
He said shoplifting was a bigger problem for the business than the 10% rise in the national living wage from April this year - despite a warning from the Association of Convenience Stores last week that the latter was dragging on retailers’ profits.
“That then becomes a financial problem,” he said. “Sometimes we’ll have to drop a staff member to put a security guard in.”
He said One Beyond was “still coming to terms” with the precise impact on shrinkage.
A number of supermarkets have introduced routine bag checks in some stores in response to a rise in shoplifting in the cost of living crisis.
In August last year, 100 retail bosses signed a letter urging the police to prioritise shop crime amid soaring costs to the sector.
One Beyond is due to open its 100th store, in Redditch, in July. Edwards said the growth of the business had been fuelled by onboarding some of the team behind Poundworld in its heyday. They include One Beyond head of retail operations Damon Clarke, who previously served as Poundworld head of retail operations and profit protection.
Former Poundworld divisional operations manager Darron Hitchcock is also on the One Beyond team, as area manager.
Clarke and Hitchcock are among former Poundworld team members who have been “back on side from day one”, said Edwards.
“When they realised the show was on the road again, a lot of [Poundworld] store managers came back and warehouse management came back, and that’s why we’ve managed to get to 100 shops so quickly.”
Poundworld collapsed into administration in 2018, leading to the closure of all its stores. Edwards Snr and Jnr set up One Beyond after failing to reach a deal with TPG Capital to save some Poundworld stores.
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