Security provider boosts expertise in retail market

Buddy Anderson.

Anderson will work closely with the retail chain market and identify primary and secondary retail companies to promote solution based offerings. As part of his focus, Anderson will also be carefully examining the effectiveness of the supply chain with a full risk analysis of the retail market.

He has spent 30 years in the industry and is fully au fait with this area, having worked as a consultant to many of South Africa's large corporate retailers where he grew his experience further into retail administration, risk management, loss prevention, security and internal auditing.

“We believe Buddy is the key to unlocking the retail market and although we have been successful in this area in the past, we are hoping to tap into a larger portion of it with Buddy's assistance,” says Richard McGhee, the company's sales and marketing director.

McGhee goes on to say that, “we are also improving the training of our guards in retail security, specialising in “hot products” – for example blades, aspirins and so on. We would also like to train in house staff along the same lines.”

The company's offering to potential clients would also include security audits. These would provide clients with a full assessment of their premises, covering - receiving, sales and documentation control.

Fire systems, CCTV and access control also plays a vital part in the retail game. “This would link in with the security audits where we would advise on best practices and shortfalls. Thorough assessments will play a key role in our endeavour to offer a comprehensive security package to retail clients. Buddy will conduct these assessments on an ongoing basis, internally (Tyco / ADT) and externally, constantly looking for better solutions,” comments McGhee.

Anderson has spoken at several seminars including Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) SA, which is part of the Consumer Goods Council and sits on various other ECR committees. Working with ECR, he has also presented a master retailer case study on the ECR road map process at several venues in SA and Europe and has been able to reduce shrinkage losses through the implementation of awareness programmes and ongoing training.

“I believe that through better collaboration, client relationships will improve and we will be able to provide a better service and gain a clearer understanding of retailers needs,” concludes Anderson.