Spark New Zealand taps Auror retail crime reporting platform across company’s store network
Telecommunications and digital services company, Spark New Zealand, is partnering with Auror. Auror’s retail crime reporting platform will be introduced across Spark’s retail store network, making it easier for teams to record and manage incidents, and giving it a clearer view of the trends affecting its stores.
Spark General Manager Consumer Channels, Mandy Tomlinson, says: "Our people come to work to help New Zealanders stay connected, and they should be able to do that safely,” Tomlinson said. “Introducing Auror’s platform will make it easier for our people to report incidents and will give us better visibility of trends across our retail stores. That information will help us strengthen our processes, better support our teams and work more effectively with police when required.”
Auror Vice President Australia and New Zealand, Brett Farley, comments: “The way retailers and police in New Zealand are working together through digital collaboration and information sharing to clamp down on retail crime is genuinely world leading, and it’s fantastic to help make Spark NZ a part of that. What matters to us is keeping people and stores safe. We’re on a mission to reduce violent retail crime by 50% in five years, and we’re privileged to work with Spark NZ to help make that a reality across the country.”
Asda
Asda is also rolling out Auror. It says that a ten-week pilot in 30 London stores demonstrated the value of having a faster, more effective way to report incidents and identify repeat offenders in real-time.
According to the UK grocery retailer, the trial resulted in: more than £100,000 of products recovered and returned to shelves; 55% increase in crime prevention rates; 80% reduction in incident reporting time, from around 25 minutes to under five; improved identification of repeat and cross retailer offenders.
David Lepley, Chief Operating Officer at Asda, says: “Rolling out Auror across our estate will further strengthen our ability to prevent and tackle retail crime. The results from our London pilot demonstrated the value of having a faster and more effective way to report incidents and identify repeat offenders in real-time. By working more closely with police and retailers through a shared intelligence network, we can focus our efforts where they will have the greatest impact and help to tackle retail crime.”
Mark Gleeson, General Manager UK and Europe at Auror, comments: “We’re delighted to welcome Asda to our strong network of like-minded retailers who are all committed to keeping frontline retail colleagues safe and taking on retail crime together. It’s fantastic to see retailers like Asda unite to take a stand against the top 10% of offenders causing 70% of retail crime and take back UK’s high streets. Auror has made it 80% faster to record crime for Asda colleagues and early pilot results saw the team identify dozens of prolific repeat offenders, with the majority known to offend at stores owned by other retail brands within the Auror network. This is why the network effect is key to getting on top of this problem.”
“Retailers are working more effectively with police than ever before through digital collaboration. This is helping them surface the true scale of offending, understand and respond to risk across their estates, and focus their precious resources on those repeats, organised, and violent offenders - creating safer stores for all.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Retail security will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
