Background

A market leader
in the supermarket sector

Albert Heijn is a leading supermarket chain, owned and operated by Dutch company and international retailing group Ahold. With strong local consumer brands in Europe and the United States, Ahold’s core business is selling good food. The company operates a variety of retail formats ranging from small convenience stores to major hypermarkets, giving customers the choice to shop when and where is most suitable for them. The company takes pride in offering the best possible value, product range and quality of shopping experience. With 227 franchise outlets in the Netherlands, Albert Heijn branded stores are renowned for quality and affordable everyday groceries. Situated in the southern Netherlands, the Albert Heijn store in Veldhoven is located in a busy town center retail zone with high footfall and a constant flow of customers from early morning until the evening.
 

Challenges

Upgrading security without disruption

Like many retailers, the Albert Heijn store in Veldhoven wanted to use video surveillance and recording to limit the impact of shoplifting and deliver on its promise to prevent crime. It also wanted to take advantage of new technologies to improve the shopping experience for customers by analyzing pedestrian routes and footfall. For more than ten years, the store had trusted the quality and reliability of IDIS OEM systems. Much of its original equipment was still operational and required minimal maintenance. However, it needed to be sure to safeguard business continuity and minimize disruption with a simple, low-cost migration from analogue systems that would be extremely quick and easy to install and operate. So when the time came for the store to make the upgrade to high-definition (HD) surveillance, Albert Heijn’s security team looked to IDIS for a cost-effective, scalable approach.
 

Solutions

A complete HD surveillance solution

In response to the challenges, Albert Heijn Veldhoven rolled out IDIS DirectIP™ to reduce and prevent shrinkage while improving the overall retail experience. Within two days the store in Veldhoven was fitted with the complete solution. It includes sixteen DirectIP™ HD cameras with a 32-channel network video recorder featuring a 24-port PoE switch, while utilizing multi-spot monitors and a client PC with IDIS Center™ video management software. The security manager and cafeteria is equipped with 42 inch monitors displaying 16 live camera views simultaneously and in real-time to provide a 360 view of the entire store.
 

Results

Robust protection with
unrivalled performance

The security team now benefits from full HD quality that is crucial in the recognition and detection of suspicious behavior to drive down shrinkage. The Albert Heijn Veldhoven security team quickly adopted the user-friendly new system with little time required for training, while benefiting from HD picture quality and simultaneous live viewing and recording across multiple cameras. This is enabling the team to prevent and detect crime while improving the overall shopping experience for customers. With a much more robust security capability plus unrivalled performance, quality and functionality, the store team’s response to the solution has been extremely positive.