ADT's electronic article surveillance (EAS) system helps flagship UK Holiday Park put customers first
Since 2000, Devon Cliffs Holiday Park has been through a £13.5 million redevelopment, giving it the opportunity to rejuvenate its retail outlets - and put the focus firmly back on customer service.
Nestling on the cliff-top at Exmouth, with uninterrupted sea views and its own private beach, Devon Cliffs has more than 1,800 static caravans, as well as touring pitches.
The challenge
Open from March to October, the flagship UK park of Haven Holidays - which forms part of the Bourne Leisure Group - accommodates around 10,000 guests at the height of the season, including hundreds of day visitors drawn to the park's extensive new pools, spa, entertainment and retail facilities.
Alongside The Emporium, selling gifts, toys and clothing, there is a sweet shop, a photo shop, a bakery and a mini supermarket - providing everything holidaymakers need on site. With a retail team of 75 at the height of the season, seasonal turnover is in excess of £2 million - around half a million transactions. Almost two-thirds of this takes place during the six-week summer holiday period.
Devon Cliffs' needs
The redevelopment of the park's atrium-style retail area provided the perfect opportunity to install electronic article surveillance (EAS), explains retail shops manager Pat Titley.
"There are two main entrance/exits into the atrium area where the five retail units each have wide, open entrances allowing customers easy access and movement from one shop to another," he said.
The solution
"We decided to install EAS for the start of the 2004 holiday season to complement our ADT CCTV system. We have a Dual UltraPost system over each exit with de-tagging facilities in each retail unit."
One of the main reasons Devon Cliffs opted for EAS was because of theft and shrinkage - previously an unknown quantity - explained Titley. "Working closely with ADT, we decided to combine EAS with an electronic point of sale (EPOS) system to allow us to target problem areas."
While hard tags are used on products such as clothing and cuddly toys, Ultrastrip tags have been placed on a range of gifts and higher value items including memory cards, batteries and cameras.
Results
Titley has no doubts about the benefits of EAS. "We were seeing results within the first two weeks," he said.
While sales increased across all product ranges, there were also some surprises. "We found almost immediately that some items - children's novelty watches, for example, which had previously shown negligible sales - shot onto our best-seller lists thanks to EAS."
Titley said that, using the EPOS system to identify shrinkage, EAS had also helped to eliminate the loss of such higher value items as bulk-pack beers from the mini supermarket. "Regardless of how confident shoplifters appear, if they try to pass through the alarm system on the exit without paying, it is activated."
He believes the real benefit of EAS lies in the focus it allows Devon Cliffs to put on customer service. "We are a customer-friendly organisation and EAS allows us to give our holiday-makers a great shopping experience."
Last season was a great success, according to Titley. "We are absolutely delighted. The whole EAS system more than paid for itself in just one season. This year, with ADT's support, we will be taking it even further, introducing bottle tags and ‘safers' for computer games, CDs and DVDs."
As a result of the success of EAS at Devon Cliffs, parent company Bourne Leisure is talking to ADT about a nationwide deal.
