The company

Lidl GB  opened their first store in 1994 and, twenty five years later, they now have over 800 stores and thirteen regional distribution centres across Great Britain employing over 22,000 people.

The company takes pride in offering customers the highest quality products and they're also highly invested in making sure both their staff and customers are safe at all times. With over thirty stores operating in the East Midlands, Lidl turned to Kingdom to provide the relevant support to overcome a range of challenges stores in this region were facing. 

The challenge

After taking over the contract from the previous incumbent, it quickly became apparent that there was a lack of knowledge and submission for the Retail Loss Prevention Civil Recovery Scheme across the business. This scheme is an excellent deterrent to shoplifters if promoted, as well as being an additional revenue stream to invest back into Lidl's security budget. 

Some of Lidl's stores within the East Midlands region were also facing challenges with violent drink and drug-related incidents. They were also seeing an increase in shoplifting incidents and needed a new security strategy to deal with a sharp rise in crimes taking place on their sites. 

Lidl also had plans to open a new distribution centre in the region. They were concerned about the lack of security presence and needed a partner who could quickly source officers to ensure the opening day ran as smoothly as possible. 

The solution

Lidl turned to Kingdom to help them overcome these challenges. Firstly, we provided a training package which aimed to re-educate the store management teams about the Retail Loss Prevention Scheme and the benefits it could provide to the business. We took ownership of the scheme so that the stores could confidently introduce and relaunch best practices into their operation.

To help deal with rising crime rates at certain stores across the region, our team worked with local police units to discuss the issues and agreed on additional support over the coming months. We also provided 12 officers at short notice for the distribution centre opening day.

With only a few days' notice, we arranged and mobilised a team to increase a security presence inside the warehouse, as well as the reception area. Two days prior to the event, we held a briefing and training session with the officers and new uniform and PPE as required.

The results

In the first month Lidl re-introduced the Retail Loss Prevention Civil Recovery Scheme into their operation, they generated 22 civil recovery submissions with a value of over £1,300. The focus has remained, and the revenue generated now forms an essential part of the security budget for the region.

Since working with the local police forces, stores that were facing issues with crimes have seen a reduction in incidents by over 60%. Kingdom also received lots of praise for the success of the support we provided during the opening of the distribution centre, with the day turning out to be a complete success.

We have retained the contract in the Wednesbury region for the last 5 years in a very competitive market. Our team has managed to continue to produce effective cover and results averaging over 98% coverage and 98% average SLA scores over this period. The regional Lidl teams are extremely happy with the level of service we've provided, receiving lots of excellent feedback along the way.