Octavian gains academic edge in retail security market

Octavian Security Ltd, the retail security company that famously placed Gurkha security guards at IKEA, has teamed up with retail expert, Professor Joshua Bamfield, in a move to improve retail security provision.

Renowned retail crime and fraud expert, Professor Bamfield, will be working in partnership with Octavian Security applying his expert knowledge of criminal behaviour in the retail sector to Octavian's client security proposals.

This will not only see the Professor helping to devise consistent in-store retail security programmes for Octavian's clients - he will also be helping Octavian to introduce an even higher level of strategy to its programmes to both prevent shrinkage and improve the shopping experience for customers.

"We now work with some big high street names and like IKEA's Gurkhas, we want to use the innovation that we are known for to help retailers prevent crime in their stores wherever possible,"  explains Octavian special projects manager, Pippa Muckley.

"We already have officers that are trained to improve customer service and with Professor Bamfield we are looking at closer client relationships which will utilise tools such as focus groups with clients' customers and workshops with their retail teams to help identify and reduce shrinkage wherever it occurs through theft."

Professor Bamfield's own organisation, The Centre for Retail Research, offers organisations authoritative research and consultancy on retail, and authors ‘The Global Retail Theft Barometer' - and so will be able to offer Octavian's retail clients the benefit of his global perspective on the prevention of retail crime.

He says of his relationship with Octavian Security:

"It could be argued that the majority of security companies are rolling out the same answers to the criminal fraternity's ever-evolving repertoire - used daily against the UK's retailers.