The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) is running a series of security and loss prevention workshops as customer theft and staff attacks are shown to be on the rise.
A survey published by the British Retail Consortium in January showed retail theft rose by a third in 2009, with physical violence against shop staff increasing by 58%.

The workshops, aimed at horticulture businesses, will take place across the UK between July and November, and will cover a broad range of safety concerns such as tackling and reducing customer theft, recognising the behaviour of a thief, cutting staff theft and reducing the risk of cash motivated attacks.

Led by the HTA's security advisor Jeremy Davies and business development advisor Neville Stein, the workshops will offer practical, easy to apply and workable solutions that can be applied immediately and, in most cases, without additional investment from businesses.

Mr Davies said: "The issue for garden centres compared to high street retailers is that high street retailers are very well supported by local crime prevention groups, with crime prevention officers patrolling the streets, whereas out of town garden centres don't usually have that support."

He added: "High street retailers are also much better equipped with CCTV and security tagging systems and their staff are trained in how to deal with shop lifters, but garden centres haven't really experienced these sort of problems until recent years. However, now thieves are moving from the high street to garden centres where it's easier to go on a spree. That's why we're promoting these workshops. If people have gone on a workshop they may be able to prevent these sort of things happening."

A recent HTA crime survey revealed the top five products stolen from garden centres were seeds, gifts, water products, secateurs and hand tools, and clothing and gloves.

Garden centres have been increasingly targeted by thieves in recent years, with notable examples including an armed raid at Barton Grange, Bolton, in August 2009, where a garden centre employee was tied up and the manager held at knifepoint, before the masked men escaped with thousands of pounds in cash and garden centre vouchers.

Six workshops will take place, running from 11am to 4pm and costing £75 plus VAT per delegate for HTA members. The six locations are:

Coolings, Sevenoaks, July 6
Poplars, Dunstable, September 27
Cadbury, Bristol, October 6
Melbicks, Birmingham, October 21
Barton Grange, Preston, November 16
Mugdoch, Glasgow, November 25