Co-op counts the cost of 1,000 daily thefts and staff assaults
THE Co-op says it has suffered its worst year for theft, abuse and violence against staff as incidents soared by 44% to around 1,000 a day at its stores – costing it some £70million.
Chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq pleaded with the Government and police to take retail crime seriously.
Speaking at the mutual conglomerate’s annual results, she said every day on average four employees – some wearing bodycams – were attacked, while its stores are plagued by “persistent, prolific” thieves.
To make matters worse, the Co-op says that in 80% of cases where its own security personnel have detained sus- pected thieves and people who have abused or been violent towards its workers, the police do turn up to arrest them.
Ms Khoury-Haq said that the problems had reached epidemic proportions, and she added: “Being a small store operator, it makes us more vulnerable to retail crime and people [who commit crimes] can get in and out more easily.
“We need society, the Government and police to pay attention.”
The Co-op and other retailers want the Government to make assaulting, threatening
not or abusing shop staff a standalone criminal offence in England and Wales, as it already is in Scotland.
Bosses say that there, the police reaction rate to violent or abusive incidents at Co-op stores is at 60% since Holyrood politicians introduced the law in 2021. In England, the rate is just 10%.
For the 53 weeks to January 6, the convenience stores, funerals, wholesaling, insurance and legal services conglomerate made a pre-tax profit of £28million.
The year prior, it made a £268million profit thanks to the sale of its petrol forecourts to Asda, which produced a one-off gain of £319million.
Its revenues declined by 2% to £11.2billion.At the same time, Co-op cut its net debt from £322million to £82million last year.
Ms Khoury-Haq said that having slashed its debt by 90% over the last two years and returned to profitability and overhauled its IT, retail logistics and supply chain, the Co-op was “back in control of its destiny” and could switch its focus from turnaround to growth.