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The Retail Fraud Show 2009
Introduction from Agenda Director, John Wilson

Welcome to the 6th Retail Fraud Show. The 2009 event was staged on April 30th at its traditional home of the Novotel, Hammersmith and is set against the dramatic backcloth of economic recession that has claimed the life of a number of retail events in recent months.

Bucking this trend, the Fraud Event obviously has an affectionate aura for sponsors, exhibitors and delegates alike and numbers are up year on year, with 2009 already looking like a record.

Given the subject matter, paradoxically, the economic climate could be a contributory factor to its success. Indeed, there has never been a more apt time to be involved in the worlds of loss prevention or profit protection. With slower High Street sales, retail businesses are looking at ways of protecting their margins and with £4.1 billion worth of losses recorded in the UK in 2007/8, there is plenty to go at.

The Show takes a closer look at the sector through the eyes of the retailers who, to paraphrase Harold MacMillan’s famous phrase: have never had it so good in terms of available technology and training to help reduce their own losses.

The event examined this technology and training through two distinct, yet overlapping streams: technology and online with an additional programme of retail Master Classes, a first for this ever-evolving show. The idea of the Master Classes is to provide a more detailed examination of a particular hot issue. Data Mining, a long-time ‘must-have’ for loss prevention specialists, is the subject of one such Master Class. As prices for the technology have come down in recent months, Anne Frost, a director of the ORIS Group who holds a MA in Security Management, takes an academic and independent view of the technology available and to optimise its full potential both within and beyond loss prevention.

Other highlights of the event include a sneak preview of the Retail Fraud Awareness Day, an opportunity for all loss prevention specialists to raise awareness of the impact of shrink.

Laurence King, once described as Europe’s leading loss prevention specialist by Phil Wrigley, the recently retired chairman of New Look, will talk about why June 30 2009 will not only be a date for the loss prevention manager’s calendar, but a shop window of opportunity for retail businesses to ‘think shrink’. He wants staff every level of the organisation to be asking the question: ‘If losses cost £22,000 per second* last year, what did it cost our business and what are we all doing about it? I see this, not as a one off, but an annual staging post, a call to arms to make shrink an everyday board agenda item.

And what a line up we had on April 30th. Arcadia, Jaeger, Monsoon, Peacocks, JD Sports, the Mosaic Group and Republic all reveal their inner secrets on shrink management and why tackling it is this year’s must have fashion.

The Carphone Warehouse, Borders, Visa and Microsoft also bring their collective technological weight to the debate at what promises to be a fantastic day of education empowerment and entertainment, please enjoy these post events presentations and I very much look forward to seeing you for the 7th Annual Retail Fraud conference back at the Novotel on 20th May 2010!

Enjoy!

* Source: Global Theft Barometer 2007/8