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Britain’s shoplifting epidemic is a “low-level war going on every day”, the boss of Iceland has said, urging retailers and the government to take the criminal threat to the country’s high streets more seriously.
Richard Walker, executive chair of the frozen foods retailer, said thefts were costing the supermarket £20mn a year that could otherwise be invested in its shops.
“Shoplifting sounds like cheeky pilfering, but actually it should be called violent crime because we’re talking about thieves using knives, needles and hammers in threats to our staff,” Walker told the Financial Times’ Future of Retail conference.
Iceland is already trialling controversial facial recognition technology in its stores to detect shoplifters and directly feed their profiles into police databases in a bid to prompt forces to act before a staff member is attacked.
Walker welcomed the UK’s recent moves to toughen laws against shoplifters, including legislation to remove a £200 summary offence threshold.
He said the existing law, where thieves who steal goods worth less than £200 are usually spared a prison term, had little meaning for the value-focused grocery chain and gave “carte blanche to shoplifters”.
Walker said Iceland had been advised by the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data watchdog, not to display images of prolific shoplifters because it could have an impact on their human rights — a move he described as “idiotic”.
“I’ve advised shop managers to do it because this is a low-level war going on every day across our high streets and we need to take it very seriously”.
Iceland has more than 900 shops in the UK and around 30 in Europe © Bloomberg
Despite the wide-ranging pressures on retailers from higher staffing costs, and packaging reforms, Walker said Iceland was planning to open 30 outlets this year and had long-term targets to hit £5bn in annual revenue.
It has more than 900 shops in the UK and around 30 in Europe and made £4.1bn in revenue in the year to the end of March.
Walker urged the government to follow through with its promises to reform business rates, which he called a “Victorian taxation system that is just outdated”.
“I don’t even want to pay less tax, I just want [online retailers] to be on a level playing field,” he said, arguing that business rates are “the primary reason” why the high street is “dying”.
Walker said the last Budget — which raised about £25bn from increased business taxes, mainly employer national insurance contributions — was a “tough pill to swallow”.
In another sign that the Labour government’s move to increase employer NICs has cooled the job market, the Iceland boss said that it was now attracting 50 candidates for every role it advertised — more than ever before.
“It’s quite clear that demand for work, demand for pay, demand for hours is really there.”
Walker, who switched allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour before the last election, said his ambitions to become an MP were now in “long-term hibernation”.
He also urged Labour to follow through on its planning reforms, adding that it still took between eight and 12 weeks for permission to change a sign above a shop.