Optimising security costs is possible!

There is a growing need for ways to reduce security costs. One of the reasons for this is the lack of human resources in a situation where the requirements for security staff are high, but there are few people suitable for the position.

How best to save on security costs?

Viking Security was approached by the Estonian retail chain Selver with a request to reduce the number of security guards in stores. In the 70+ Selver shops, 1–2 security guards were present in each, one of whom was constantly monitoring the cameras. ‘The increase of electronic security was caused by the lack of security guards and the growing trend of thefts,’ claimed Katrin Kuusk, Head of Internal Control at Selver. Consequently, the decision was made to move one position to a separate video surveillance centre. Thanks to this, it is now possible to monitor all the shops from two separate video surveillance centres.

Kuusk believes that the biggest benefit of this project is the reduction in the volume of manned guarding. This means that Selver saves hundreds of thousands of euros on fixed costs at the expense of labour costs only.