Shop thieves are taking over retail stores and avoiding public condemnation as politicians accuse supermarkets of speculation, Co-op Food chief executive said . said.
Matt Hood said there was a surge in crime in his stores and that he was «disappointed» that people were protecting looters after MPs criticized extortionate prices.
The co-op, which operates 2,500 outlets, recently released data showing that police do not respond to more than 70% of calls for serious crimes at its stores.
It says that the number of crimes, thefts in stores and antisocial behavior rose 35% year on year as criminal gangs target stores to steal goods such as coffee, alcohol and baby formula.
Competing retailers including Waitrose. also reported an increase in shoplifting, blaming it on organized gangs.
Mr Hood, who took over as managing director of a food company in September last year, said: «I read some of the comments when we were talking about the increase in shoplifting and people were like, 'Well, that's how they make money. a lot of money, so what's the difference?»
«What drives me crazy is the number of people who want to claim that there are no victims. Tell me, if your child worked in that store, would you say, that this is a victimless crime, because in fact it is not.”
Matt Hood, head of Co-op Food, said the retailer is battling a surge in theft. Photo: John Super He said he would encourage his children to work in supermarkets, “but even I, as someone who runs the business, will think, do I feel safe when they are there? And this is fundamentally wrong.”
Security threats could also push people away from working in retail, he said: «If it continues like this, it will be difficult for us to attract people to this industry.»
This could mean that grocers need to raise wages even more, as they have already raised wages to combat staff shortages.
Price increases in stores could follow if labor costs strength will remain consistently high.
However, recent speculation about an increase in shoplifting due to families being unable to afford groceries due to the cost of living crisis is incorrect, Mr. Hood said.
He urged the public to reject the idea «that this is happening because people can't afford to feed themselves.»
«No, it's mostly because people use infant formula, to cut down on drugs. They use it for organized crime,” Mr. Hood said.
A growing sense that shoplifting can be justified as shoplifting follows the recent storm over rising UK grocery bills, with supermarket food prices jumping about 15% over the past year, Kantar said.
0208 Co-op crime wave
Politicians, including Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, have argued that part of the rise was due to so-called «greed».
Subsequently, supermarket executives were recruited to responsibility. deputies to explain their prices.
However, a recent investigation by the UK Competition Authority found no evidence of speculation in the industry.
Contest & The Markets Authority (CMA) said that supermarket margins have shrunk due to higher food prices, and the drop in wholesale prices has been reflected in shoppers.
This also points to the low profit margins of supermarkets, which range from 2% to 3%.
Mr Hood said he was «not thrilled» by the fact that the CMA felt it necessary to investigate in the first place, saying: «The suggestion that we're cashing in will never be found to mean anything.» .
“This is the most competitive retail environment in the world. There is no other country where 10 or 11 players compete for a share of the wallet of 70 million people, it simply does not exist.”
0208 Retail wage hike
He said he understands the government is under pressure to meet its target of lowering inflation. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to halve headline inflation by the end of the year.
Inflation has begun to ease in recent months, falling to 7.9% in June.
“We know the government needs food manufacturers and retailers to help bring inflation down . The disappointment was that there was an assumption that we were not doing this for our own benefit. The reality is we didn't do it because we didn't see cost savings,” said Mr. Hood.
Last month, the CMA unveiled plans to turn its attention to big food brands like Heinz and Unilever to see if consumers are being scammed.
Last week, Unilever reported a 9% jump in sales after raising prices by 9.4% in the first half of the year. Profit margin increased from 17% to 17.1%.
Producer Marmite has responded to accusations that it sets prices higher than necessary.
However, Mr Hood said he was not surprised by the regulator's latest move: “Unilever and others have released some big numbers recently, so it will be interesting to see what the CMA finds as they dig into that. «.
The comments come amid fears that global food prices could rise again as the British Retail Consortium warned of 'black clouds on the horizon' this week.
0208 The number of shoplifters in England and Wales
Retailers warned on Tuesday that global food prices suddenly jumped again after Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to block Ukrainian grain exports and India restricted rice exports.
Mr Hood said supermarkets will fight to protect customers, but warned that retailers «do not have deep pockets» to deal with further supply chain shocks going forward.
“If fundamental changes happen in the supply chain, they should go back to customers,” he said.
He was speaking when the Co-op announced it was cutting the price of hundreds of other products for its members by investing £70m in what he said was the largest investment ever announced by a FMCG retailer.
Mr Hood said, «The reality is that this is not funded by falling commodity prices, which is what I would like, because I would like them to be on the right track.»
He said the price drop was due to Co-op removing costs from its business following a management review last year with Mr. Hood taking over Co-op Food and Shirin Khuri-Hak taking over as Co-op Food's chief. op food. at the helm of a broader business.
Co-op also operates 800 funeral homes across the UK, as well as acting as an insurer and providing legal services.
Mr Hood said the company had «a little more leeway» on pricing following cost-cutting efforts that also included trials of dimming lights in its stores last year.
0208 Grocery prices skyrocket#
He added that Co-op is now «one of the most financially sound retailers» and hopes to get back to the point where it can reopen expected growth in numbers soon.
Despite this, however, a surge in retail crime could mean some tough decisions need to be made about where the Co-op operates.
Mr Hood said: “We may have to make extreme choices. Probably only 20 percent of our stores account for 80 or 90 percent of all thefts — or, as I call it, looting.
“Of course, I don’t want to take these stores. But for the benefit of my colleagues, not to mention the profitability of these stores, we may have to. The reality is that if this is perceived as an obvious victimless crime, then it will increase. If we don't find a way to deal with this, something will escalate somewhere.
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