Co-op has reported its biggest drop in retail crime since before the pandemic, suggesting that collaborative action with police and continued investment in security is starting to pay off, The Grocer can reveal.
New figures showed overall retail crime at the convenience retailer dropped by 21% in 2025. Incidents of antisocial behaviour and abuse have also fallen by 36%, while physical assaults are down 31%. Kiosk breaches have also declined by 30%.
The improvement marks a significant turning point after what the retailer described as an “enormous rise” in offences across 2022 and 2023.
Co-op campaigns, public affairs and policy director Paul Gerrard told The Grocer the scale of the fall had not been seen since before Covid-19 hit. “There are still too many shopworkers being attacked, but it’s on the right trajectory,” he said.
Gerrard credited a significant change in police response as a key factor behind the progress, particularly in response to violent incidents, which formed part of the Retail Crime Action Plan introduced in 2023.
Before October 2023, police attended only one in five incidents where Co-op had detained a suspect through covert guarding operations. Over the past two-and-a-half years, that figure has risen to seven in 10. “It is beginning to make a difference, and the police deserve credit for that,” he added.
He said, however, there was “never a silver bullet” and that Co-op’s own sustained investment had been equally important in driving crime down.
Over the past six years, Co-op has invested around £40m in crime prevention measures, including body-worn cameras, upgraded CCTV, product protection such as security cases for high-risk items including meat, and security guards.
“We’ve invested a lot of money consistently, and I think that has made Co-op less of an easy target,” Gerrard said.
The retailer also operates more than 20 partnerships with police forces focused on intelligence sharing and targeted enforcement.
In 2025, these partnerships led to 500 offenders being managed, resulting in more than 100 years of combined custodial sentences, alongside hundreds of criminal behaviour orders and rehabilitation orders.
Gerrard warned, however, that the progress could be reversed if these efforts are not maintained.
“If we think the job is done, then it will just come back. We need to sustain what we’re already doing,” he said. “This is not an unsolvable problem. But it requires businesses to take it seriously, police to take it seriously and to work together. Sustaining these different measures is what makes the difference.”
Looking ahead, Gerrard said clamping down on the onward sale of stolen goods as part of organised crime activity is critical to accelerate the decline further. This is being tackled by the organised retail crime team within Opal, which is being funded by both the Home Office and retailers in the Project Pegasus partnership.
He said another priority is addressing the root causes of offending, particularly those struggling with substance addiction, which organised criminals often exploit by commissioning them to steal goods in exchange for cash or drugs.
“The people carrying out these crimes are often vulnerable and struggling with substance abuse,” Gerrard said. “We’ve got to ensure interventions like rehab are there to take away that addiction.”
Of the 500 offenders managed through Co-op’s partnerships last year, only around one in 10 received a rehabilitation order, he said.
“I don’t believe only one in 10 needed a rehab order,” he added. “We need to make sure the interventions are available to stop people needing to steal to fund their habits.”
While retail crime remains higher than pre-pandemic levels, Co-op said its latest figures demonstrated that collaborative action between retailers and police can deliver meaningful results.
“I think what we’ve got here proves you can tackle it and you can bring it down,” Gerrard said. “But we have to keep going.”
Co-op’s new crime results come as the British Retail Consortium revealed its latest annual crime survey earlier this week, which similarly found incidents of violence and abuse across the sector fell by around a fifth last year.
The trade body said, however, that levels remained significantly higher than before the pandemic, with theft and organised crime continuing to pose a major challenge for retailers.
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