Despite incidents of retail crime being on the rise across the sector, Co-op saw a reduction in overall retail crime and violence against staff in 2025, Retail Week can reveal.
In data shared exclusively with Retail Week for the 10 months to October 2025, Co-op reported an overall retail crime reduction of 18% compared to 2024.
The c-store specialist also had a 32% reduction in incidences of violence against retail staff, a 27% reduction in kiosk breaches and a 33% reduction in anti-social behaviour and threats.
Co-op head of risk and retail compliance Jenny Alleyne said: “Things are getting better and we are seeing improvements in our stores.
“There’s still a lot to do, and the numbers overall are still really high, but it’d be wrong to look back at the last couple of years and say that what we’ve been doing hasn’t made an impact”.
In 2025, Co-op invested tens of millions of pounds in combating rising retail crime, with a particular focus on staff safety and loss prevention. These included new CCTV systems, body-worn cameras for staff and more employing more security guards.
The c-store specialist has also been a vocal campaigner for the introduction of the Retail Crime Action Plan and for the passage of the standalone retail crime bill.
It comes as the latest data from the Office for National Statistics revealed last week that the number of reported incidents of shoplifting between September 2024 and September 2025 increased by 5% to 519,381, compared with the previous year’s 492,660 offences, which was an increase of 20%.
According to the most recent BRC crime report, annual losses as a result of customer theft totalled a record £2.2bn and retailers spent £1.8bn – also a record – on crime prevention.
No comments yet