With the current UK threat level from international terrorism at severe and specific concerns having been recently issued by the security services regarding shopping centres, Kingdom held a bespoke counter terror awareness training day in partnership with the management of Charter Walk Shopping Centre in Burnley. Kingdom has provided retail security services to the shopping centre since September 2005.
A much higher than anticipated number of guests attended the drop in centre at the site on Tuesday 10th March between 12noon and 5.30pm.
The session was open to all staff, management, maintenance, security and external shops (tenants).
Excellent feedback was received following the event, with Kathryn Wilkinson, Manager of Peter's Jewellers at the shopping centre saying, "I've been on site for years and never knew about some of the things mentioned. It's been very useful and beneficial."
Kingdom’s client and shopping centre General Manager, Chris Gibben, wrote to Kingdom’s Delroy McGee, saying:
“Just a note to thank you for the training session that you facilitated today. I have no doubt that the importance of the subject matter and recent media coverage provided the incentive for many to attend and I was particularly pleased with the turnout. I think that even more might have attended if their employers had given them the opportunity.
“From the retail managers and staff that I spoke to, the feedback was extremely positive and without exception, they considered it to have been a very valuable and worthwhile exercise. Many referred to the content as thought-provoking and said that it had raised their awareness to the ways in which they could improve their own security arrangements. From the responses to the questions that followed the presentation, it also revealed that improvements could be made to the emergency procedures for the Centre as a whole and emphasised the importance for changes to be updated and communicated on a more regular basis.
“Feedback from site employees was equally as positive, with everyone endorsing the training as being beneficial to their respective roles within the Centre and for safeguarding the wellbeing of occupants and visitors to Charter Walk.
“Again, my thanks to you for your time spent on site today and for putting together this well-received training package.”
Kingdom recently wrote an article entitled “What Can Go Wrong In A Shopping Centre” which looked at security in shopping centres, terrorism concerns, as well as covering issues like lost children, fires, theft, riots and night time duties. You can read the article by clicking here.
From a basic retail officer door presence to a fully managed risk and loss prevention service, Kingdom is an established retail specialist with a dedicated retail division working in partnership with some of the biggest retail names to reduce shrinkage and provide a return on investment (ROI). Kingdom believes that reducing loss is a partnership effort and requires the need for a specialist company with quality people. To find out more about Kingdom’s retail security services, please visit http://www.kingdom.co.uk/services/retail-security/
