Retail Resilience: Key Takeaways from Harrison’s Loss-Prevention Event

We recognise that operating a successful and responsible business has never been more challenging or demanding than it is today. In a rapidly evolving landscape of risks and opportunities, technological innovation is advancing at an unprecedented rate. Meanwhile, resource availability and social instability pose pressing challenges as stakeholders increasingly expect businesses to address the pressures of retail theft and rising costs.

At Harrison Retail, we hosted an exclusive event centred around building retail resilience, where we unveiled our state-of-the-art showroom, crafted to inspire our customers, featuring a fully functional supermarket replica exhibiting our innovative loss prevention solutions.

Loss prevention intervention

During the event, guests had the opportunity to experience first-hand our fifteen bespoke loss-prevention products in situ. These included shelf, dispenser, and surround solutions curated by our specialist product team to combat stock loss and protect profits, all the while maintaining and ensuring a seamless in-store experience for customers.

Explore our interactive retail solutions showroom below

On display were our latest retail innovations, such as dual, gravity, and locking risers, designed to prevent opportunistic theft by presenting barriers to sweeping shelves, without compromising employees’ access to replenish and organise stock. We also showcased a range of dispenser solutions for safeguarding high-value items. With an integrated spring-powered pusher dispensing only one item at a time, they strike the perfect balance between functionality and security while serving as a highly effective theft deterrent.

Boosting productivity and reducing stock loss

After concluding our showroom tour, we welcomed industry experts Simon Singleton, Former COO of H&B and Pepco Group UK, Simon Hedaux, CO-Founder of Rethink Retail and Adrian Beck, Professor at the University of Leicester for the ECR Retail Loss Group, to hear about the current challenges surrounding stock loss and productivity and the strategies needed to tackle these.

Our speakers delved into the following topics:

Boosting productivity and reducing stock loss | Simon Singleton

To kick off, Simon set the scene with an overview of the current retail landscape – a cliff edge which poses an existential threat to businesses, prompting unanticipated trade-offs to balance the books. We explored real-world examples of balancing security with accessibility, ensuring that loss prevention strategies support, rather than hinder, sales and service targets. Simon offered his perspective on what good actually looks like: a frictionless experience for customers, reduces theft and has a demonstrably < 2-year payback timeframe.

Future directions in managing retail loss | Adrian Beck

Adrian enlightened the audience on the changes we’re experiencing in a retail context, including the growing availability of data, the evolving profile of risk and the rise of e-commerce. He emphasised the critical role of retail loss prevention strategies and highlighted a common pitfall: businesses viciously cycling between upward and downward trajectories, triggered by factors including complacency, resource cuts and new leadership. Adrian concluded by outlining the key cross-departmental activities needed to break this cycle and build a successful and resilient loss prevention strategy to drive lasting impact. 

The productivity challenge | Simon Hedaux

Finally, Simon addressed the pressing challenge of reducing task and process times while simultaneously driving ATV and increasing shopfloor presence for customers. He contextualised this with current risks to business, such as increased National Insurance contributions and labour wages. Simon emphasised the importance of tracking business costs over time, creating a clear productivity roadmap and streamlining workflows to achieve sustainable improvements.

To conclude the event, we held a fireside chat and interactive Q&A where our guest speakers were joined by;

• Tim Bettley, Former Commercial Director | Poundland and Dealz
• Eddie Ball, Business Development Manager | Harrison Retail
• Douglas Cook, Product Development Manager | Harrison Retail

The entire webinar & fireside chat recording can be viewed below.

Solving your retail challenges

At Harrison, we recognise that no two projects are the same, and neither is there one defined solution for any challenge, which is why we position your individual project needs at the heart of our operations from the initial brief to installation. Our design-led approach and extensive experience with retail projects are globally recognised and industry-leading, so you can be sure that our collaborative in-house retail specialists and product designers will champion your every request. 

To leverage our global network of in-house manufacturing, warehousing sites, and robust supply chain, please reach out to a member of the team via sales@harrisonretail.com.