Virgin Megastores has drafted in ADT to reduce theft and get better value for money.
The chain has begun a three- month trial of ADT's smart Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) tagging at 10 UK stores. If successful, this will be rolled out to all 155 stores. So far, 'feedback has been positive', said Virgin head of administration systems and investigation support team Richard Mathers.
The key improvement over standard EAS is reporting.
Previously, an alarm would ring if a tagged item passed through the exit gates. However, the problem is no-one at head office can be sure of the actual events that took place.
With a smart EAS tag, when the alarm rings alerts are sent to store security staff and to other parties, either on a display or via e-mail. The whole incident is recorded, including the item, the exit used and who responded.
Data is collated and presented as graphical reports.
'It's a big investment upgrading security equipment and we were looking for much higher value for money. Virgin is happy with the way the trial has gone (so far) and is confident that it will be rolled out on a national level,' added Mathers.
When Virgin upgrades its CCTV systems to digital, it will consider linking EAS tags to cameras so that they will react to a door alarm.
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