Author: Adrian Beck with Colin Peacock
ISBN No: 978-0-230-5758
Review date: 05/12/2025
No of pages: 208
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
Barry Vincent reviews New Loss Prevention, by Adrian Beck with Colin Peacock.
Adrian Beck, with his co-author Colin Peacock, is among the leading authorities in the UK on retail loss and shrinkage. Their most recent book represents the culmination of more than 10 years of research into retail loss and shrinkage by the rather oddly named Efficient Consumer Response Shrinkage Group, where Beck and Peacock are leading players. The ECR Group, a pan-European collaboration of retailers and manufacturers was set up in the late 1990s to identify best practice in reducing stock loss across the supply chain of the fast moving consumer goods sector of retail. Their ‘road map’ approach to reducing losses in retail is now widely accepted by many in the sector, and has enabled some to make a considerable impact on their shrinkage.
Definition
Beck and Peacock summarise the historical research into retail loss and shrinkage, and rehearse the problem that understanding the real causes of loss are hampered by the absence of a universally agreed definition of ‘shrinkage’ and a lack of focus on areas where the vast majority of shrinkage occurs. They emphasise the importance of tackling loss throughout the supply chain, and highlight the potential cost and implications for retailers and customers of not addressing the problem. Putting the loss into context, the authors cite surveys into losses from shrinkage across five continents that estimate the total cost of shrinkage could be as much as $278 billion, equivalent to the GDP of Denmark!
Look beyond theft
The main thrust of the book is to encourage a new way of thinking about shrinkage, and that those tasked with loss prevention must look beyond theft, particularly external theft, as the main reason for retail losses. They suggest that the search for technological solutions to reduce losses has led those employed in loss prevention down the wrong path. Retailers have become so obsessed with the ‘bogeyman’ of external theft, that they have developed a ‘mind set’ that focuses on the symptoms of shrinkage rather than the causes.
Ops failures
On the basis that reducing shrinkage represents the “last free money on the table” the message that Beck and Peacock put across is that it is operational failures generally that create the opportunities and circumstances that allow shrinkage to happen, and now is the time for a more strategic approach to the problem. They argue that there is a need for a broader framework involving a more comprehensive range of organisational and operational approaches. Amongst other elements, such a framework requires strong senior management commitment as well as good data management, and an organisational approach encompassing both business wide communication, collaboration with stakeholders and the development of excellent operational procedures led by the right people. They recommend that retail companies develop this strategy into what they describe as a ‘Loss Prevention Pyramid’ that provides a structured, logical and sustainable way to address shrinkage. New Loss Prevention represents probably the most comprehensive work to date on loss prevention in the retail sector, and serves as both an excellent introduction to anyone coming new to the area, or indeed those who are already established in the field seeking to understand how they might help their company improve its performance against shrinkage.
