The challenge
Spotlight Retail Group operates 130+ stores across Spotlight, Anaconda, Mountain Designs, and Harris Scarfe. Customer-aggression incidents had been rising year on year, mirroring the sector-wide trend reported by the SDA.
Lone openers and closers were the highest-risk cohort. Existing processes relied on store managers to escalate manually, often after the fact.
The approach
Spotlight deployed Falcon devices to night-shift staff and front-of-house leads, with the Duress App for the broader workforce. The Pathfinder dashboard gave the head office a live picture of incidents across the network.
Rollout was phased: pilot at five flagship stores, then full deployment across 130+ stores in twelve weeks.
The outcome
In the first six months post-rollout, the network reported zero serious workplace-violence incidents requiring police escalation, against an internal forecast of 40+ based on prior years. Internal sentiment surveys showed a 60% increase in staff reporting “feeling safe at work.”
The brand uses the deployment as a recruitment differentiator: “We protect our team” features in current job ads.