The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) chief executive, James Lowman, has told a parliamentary Select Committee that the impact of crime on retailers’ businesses can be the difference between them making a profit or a loss in recent years.
Giving evidence to the Business and Trade Select Committee earlier this week on the Government’s Small Business Strategy, Lowman outlined the scale of theft and abuse facing convenience store retailers and their colleagues.
Lowman (above) said: “Shop theft is not a new thing, but what we’ve seen change in recent years is the lack of any regard for consequences that thieves have. The cost of crime and the human impact is the number one issue facing our members right now.”
The Government’s Small Business Strategy was launched at the end of July, announcing a range of measures to support businesses, including the following specific to crime - ‘Creating safe places to do business, with 13,000 more police officers to provide visible community policing to crack down on shoplifting and rolling out the Safer Streets initiative.’
Figures from the 2025 ACS Crime Report show that despite spending over half a billion pounds over the last two years, retailers were victim to over 6.2m incidents of theft over the last year alone.
Official figures on shop theft from the Office for National Statistics on the number of crimes reported have consistently broken records over the last 18 months, but still stand at just over half a million - less than a tenth of the reality facing retailers.
The full evidence session is available here.
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