Case Study: Card Factory
Company: Card Factory
Name: David Pardoe, Head of Loss Prevention
Courses: Practical CCTV Installation
Card Factory is the leading specialist retailer of greetings cards, gift dressings and party products in the UK. Its first store opened in Wakefield in 1997 and today it has more than 900 stores in the UK and Ireland, with 50 new stores (net) opening every year.
The challenge
From designing, printing and distributing greetings cards, through to managing the electrics, plumbing, maintenance and shop-fitting of new stores, Card Factory handles the majority of its work in-house. This self-sufficient business model was something Head of Loss Prevention, David Pardoe was keen to replicate when it came to the provision and installation of all its IP CCTV systems. To do this would require bringing new skills and expertise in to the organisation and a thorough due diligence process led to Tavcom.
The solution
“I was immediately impressed with Tavcom,” comments Pardoe. “A key selling point for me is their absolute focus on providing the best possible training, without the distraction or bias of trying to sell kit or add-ons. The Practical CCTV Installation course provided us with a quality and well recognised nationwide qualification that would give us all we would need to install and fault-fix our CCTV systems with confidence.”
Practical CCTV Installation is a five-day classroom-based course, teaching how to install and configure high definition analogue (AHD, HDCVI and HDTVI) and IP video surveillance systems, including lighting the use of digital recording devices.
Since successfully finishing the course the Card Factory engineer responsible for security installations has completed 65 full overt and 15-20 covert in-store deployments, using technology from Hikvision. These deployments range from four to 13 cameras including awareness monitors, depending on the size and layout of the store.
The benefits
Pardoe explains the positive impact the course has had: “We know we will get a bespoke expert installation at every store, that takes in to account all the variables that can influence performance such as broadband bandwidth provision.” However, it is not only Card Factory that is benefiting from these improvements, with the company being complimented by the Police for the phenomenal quality of CCTV that it is able to share with them.
“Tavcom has without a shadow of doubt been the right training partner for Card Factory and the return-on-investment has been significant. The cost to equip a store with a new security system has reduced to approximately one third, using the same specification of kit, representing a six-figure saving last year alone,” states Pardoe.
The next step for Card Factory is for more employees to take Tavcom’s Practical CCTV Installation course, as well as its Covert CCTV course (also a BTEC level three certificate) which focuses on how to design and install covert CCTV within the current legal framework. In addition, there are plans to enrol employees on the new national CTSP Register which recognises technical security professionals for their qualifications and competence.