Remote CCTV Monitoring

Taking stock of security

As a major national supplier of building materials to the trade and public, Travis Perkins was particularly vulnerable to theft. The nature of the builders merchants business means most stock is stored outside and the company’s stock theft levels have reached unacceptable proportions.

In the company’s experience, stand-alone CCTV systems have been a “waste of time”. It decided to review the most effective method of improving its security arrangements and selected in-house remote monitoring as the most effective solution. As a result, there has been a significant reduction in losses in a short space of time.

Travis Perkins have been in business for more than 50 years and generated a turnover of £874 million in 1999. Together with the recently acquired Keyline Group, it now consists of more than 460 outlets, with over 7000 employees. More than 60% of the company’s stock is stored outside and, as most of this is also unbranded, the company was particularly vulnerable to theft.

Watching the thieves at work

Prior to installing remote video monitoring, Travis Perkins’ losses were estimated to be about 2% of turnover, with incidences of intrusion at an unacceptable level. Previously, the group had attempted to reduce these losses fire a combination of electric pulse fencing and security/gate guards although out-of -hours, their outlets were completely unmanned. The results were in unsatisfactory as Derek Turrall, Travis Perkins’ Northern Regional Security Manager points out, “In our experience, individual stand alone CCTV systems were a complete waste of time, all we would see on the VCR was pictures of people stealing our stock!”

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