High-value retail

High-value retail sites face two attack styles: fast smash and grab raids at the front, and quiet forced entry at the back. This page sets out the threats, the ratings that counter them, and how to specify doors, glazing and barriers for shops, concessions and cash offices.

• SR2 to SR4Forced entry ratings for shops and stockrooms
• LPS 1270Attack-rated glazing for display windows
• PAS 68Tested barriers against ram raids
• FB4 to FB7Ballistic classes where firearms are a risk

The threats high-value retail faces

Jewellers, watch dealers, electronics stores and designer fashion outlets hold stock that is small, valuable and easy to sell on. That combination shapes the threat. Attackers plan around two things: how fast they can reach the goods, and how fast they can leave with them.

At the front, the attack is speed. Smash and grab raids go through display glazing. Ram raids drive a vehicle at the storefront, the shutter or the entrance. Both are over in minutes, often before any response can arrive.

At the back, the attack is patience. Rear doors, goods-in bays and roof hatches are worked out of hours with hand tools. A stockroom can be emptied while the shopfront looks untouched. Cash offices and safes are targeted during the day by distraction or by force.

The common thread is the weak point. Attackers walk past the rated shutter and force the unrated side door. They leave the armoured glass alone and take the frame around it. A retail specification only works when every opening is rated against the same threat.

Rate the whole envelope. A shop is only as strong as its weakest opening. Set doors, glazing, shutters and barriers against one threat assessment, not four separate ones.

Standards and guidance for high-value retail

LPS 1175 is the forced entry standard for shutters, grilles, doors and windows. SR2 resists three minutes of attack with hand tools such as screwdrivers and saws. SR3 and SR4 stand up to heavier tool sets for longer. Most high street specifications sit somewhere in this range.

LPS 1270 rates security glazing against hand hole, arm hole and body passage. It is the right reference for display windows where the glass itself is the barrier. Vehicle impact ratings to PAS 68, IWA 14-1 and ISO 22343-1 cover the bollards and barriers that stop ram raids, stating the vehicle mass, speed and penetration distance.

Where firearms form part of the threat, ballistic ratings to EN 1522 and EN 1063 apply to counters, screens and cash office doors. Large shopping centres also sit under Martyn’s Law, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, which sets expectations for protective security at crowded premises.

Zone by zone: high-value retail

Use this table as a starting point, then move each zone up or down from your own threat assessment.

High-value retail specification mistakes to avoid

• Leaving the rear door unrated. The goods-in door is forced more often than the shopfront. Give it the same rating as the front, and rate the frame and locks as part of one tested doorset.
• Specifying glass without a rated frame. Attack-rated glazing in a standard frame fails at the frame. The rating must cover the glazing and its framing as a tested assembly.
• Choosing bollards with no test rating. A row of untested posts may look reassuring and stop nothing. PAS 68, IWA 14-1 or ISO 22343-1 test evidence states what the barrier actually stops.
• Shutters that staff will not close. A shutter left half open at closing time is a habit, not a product fault. Retractable grilles that deploy quickly get used; specify for the way the store really operates.
• Letting fire exits undo the security line. Final exits need fire rated doors that still resist attack from outside. Coordinate the fire strategy with the security specification before either is fixed.

Frequently asked questions