Major UK supermarket chains have begun placing chocolate bars inside plastic security boxes as retailers and law enforcement warn that confectionery is increasingly being stolen to order by organised criminals.
Sainsbury's confirmed it now uses "boxes on products which are regularly targeted," with Cadbury Dairy Milk bars priced at £2.60 secured behind plastic casings at a London store.
Tesco and Co-Op have similarly introduced transparent security containers that require staff assistance to open.
The Association of Convenience Stores reports that chocolate is being "sold on by criminals and is now being targeted more frequently by prolific offenders."
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Confectionery ranked as the group's most frequently stolen item in 2024, surpassed only by alcohol this year.
The British Retail Consortium's latest annual crime survey recorded 5.5 million detected shoplifting incidents during the previous year.
Reacting to the development, security company Facewatch CEO Nick Fisher told GB News that “crime remains far higher than it was just a few years ago, and the overall cost to retailers and their staff remains at unacceptable levels.”
"Our own figures show that live facial recognition is deterring an average 1,400 incidents of theft and confrontations with shop workers every day in retail outlets across the UK, and we are working hard to build on these crime prevention results.”
Sainsbury’s and other shops are locking chocolate bars in plastic boxes amid fears they are being sold on by thieves
|GETTY
The Heart of England Co-Op, operating 38 stores across the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, suffered £250,000 in chocolate losses during the past year.
Chief executive Steve Browne described the situation as a "massive issue," explaining that a single thief could inflict thousands of pounds in weekly losses at one location.
"They were coming in... then literally swiping the whole shelf," Mr Browne said.
Individual shelves stocked with chocolate can hold merchandise worth £500, he noted.
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Items like steaks are already held in anti-theft containers in some stores
|GB NEWS
The cooperative has invested £3million in security measures and other theft prevention strategies to combat the problem.
Convenience store operators across the country report similar experiences with organised theft targeting their chocolate stock.
Sunita Aggarwal, who runs shops in Leicester and Sheffield, said: "People are just coming in, and nicking boxes and boxes of chocolate."
She has installed over 30 CCTV cameras and deployed artificial intelligence technology to identify known shoplifters, while her staff now only partially fill shelves to minimise potential losses.
Paul Cheema, who owns Malcolm's convenience stores in Coventry, described confectionery as "the new buzzword for organised crime."
"It was razors, cheese, coffee. Today, these people that are taking stock from convenience stores, from supermarkets, it's taken to order. So chocolate is primetime now," he told the BBC.
Stolen goods are resold through cafes, bars, restaurants and other retail outlets, Mr Cheema explained.
The Association of Convenience Stores is demanding greater police assistance and harsher penalties for those responsible for the theft epidemic.
ACS chief executive James Lowman stated: "Confectionery, like other products commonly stolen from local shops, is being re-sold through illicit markets that help fund wider criminal activity."
He added: "Alongside better police support and effective sentences for repeat offenders, we need action to shut down the networks re-selling stolen goods."
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