Every electronics retailer knows the trade-off. The products that sell best are the ones customers can pick up, turn over and try. But those same devices are exactly what walks out the door.
Phones, tablets, laptops and smartwatches are your highest-margin stock and your highest-risk stock at the same time. So you are left choosing between an open display that drives sales and a locked cabinet that kills them. Shopguard's Fort Knox range is built to remove that choice. It is high-security display hardware designed so a customer can freely handle a device, while a staff member can release it and hand it over in three seconds, without a tool, and without giving a thief a way in.
The Problem Is Bigger Than a Few Missing Units
Retail crime has become one of the biggest pressures on the sector, on both sides of the Tasman. The scale of loss has moved theft from a background cost to a board-level problem, and the numbers tell the story.
| The stat | What it means |
|---|---|
| NZ retail crime costs $2.6 billion a year | The scale of loss flowing through to retailers and consumers (Retail NZ / NZ Police) |
| Reported retail theft up 25.3% in one year | 78,693 incidents to June 2024, up from 62,794 the year before (NZ Herald / Retail NZ) |
| 99% of NZ retailers hit by crime in 2023–24 | Almost no store is untouched; 140,746 incidents recorded (Retail NZ) |
| Only about 61% of retail crime is reported | The real figure is far higher than official stats show (Retail NZ) |
| NZ shoplifting at a 15-year high | 36,179 charges; theft increasingly organised and deliberate (B2B News, 2026) |
| AU retail crime around $9 billion a year | Australian businesses face an even larger annual bill (National Retail Association) |
The nature of the theft has changed too. Retail NZ's data points to organised, deliberate offending, with goods taken "to order" rather than out of desperation, which means casual deterrents no longer cut it. For anyone displaying high-value electronics, the display itself has become a frontline. For more on the current NZ picture, see our overview of retail theft trends and the 2026 citizen's arrest changes.
Where Traditional Display Security Falls Short
Most retailers reach for one of two options, and both cost them something. The result is a compromise: either security at the expense of sales, or sales at the expense of stock.
Locked cabinets and back-counter storage protect stock, but they put a barrier between the customer and the product. Every "can I see that one?" becomes a task for a staff member, and the impulse to buy cools while the customer waits.
Basic tethers and recoilers keep a device on the table, but aggressive, organised thieves cut or rip them, and swapping stock or re-merchandising a display becomes a slow, fiddly job for staff.
Neither option lets you do the one thing that actually sells a premium device: put it in the customer's hands. Our full range of display security solutions is built around closing that gap.
How Fort Knox Is Different
Fort Knox is engineered around the idea that security and customer experience do not have to be opposites. The same unit that stops a determined thief is the one that lets a staff member hand the device over in seconds.
On the security side, the body is built from metal matrix composite, a reinforcement stronger than steel, with a tamperproof key-management system and a powder-coated metal frame designed to frustrate and deter even determined, aggressive theft attempts. The lock is a patented laser key, with electronic options for higher-security setups.
On the experience side, the same unit is genuinely easy to live with. The wave-form claws auto-adjust to fit any device, the screen stays unobstructed so customers can actually use the product, and the bracket rotates 90 degrees for portrait or landscape display. When a customer wants a closer look, staff release the device with an instant key in about three seconds, the fastest new-product install on the market, and re-securing it is just as quick. Interchangeable brackets mean re-merchandising a display takes seconds, not a service call.
It is the difference between security that gets in the way and security that disappears into the shopping experience.
One Family, Every Device
Fort Knox isn't a single product, it's a range that brings the same engineering to whatever you're displaying. The lock, the key management and the instant release stay consistent across the family, so staff learn one system and secure everything on the floor with it.
- Fort Knox High Security Tablet Holder: zero-theft protection for open tablet displays, with self-adjusting brackets, 90 degree rotation, integrated cable management for the OEM charger, and a choice of key or electronic lock.
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Fort Knox Laptop Security: secures laptops and notebooks with reinforced steel construction and tool-free installation. Just adjust the width, slide down and lock. It fits screen widths from 260mm to 438mm, with custom solutions for configurations like an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard.
- Fort Knox High Security Phone Holder: zero phone theft on the open shop floor, with self-adjusting brackets that auto-fit every phone size, 90 degree rotation, integrated cable management for the OEM charger, and the market's fastest new-product install at three seconds. Choose a mechanical key or the electronic auto-release lock.
- Fort Knox High Security Watch Holder: the same Fort Knox engineering built for smartwatches and wrist-worn devices, with interchangeable brackets for quick re-merchandising across watch models, 90 degree rotation, integrated cable management, and a three-second instant release. Mechanical or electronic key lock.
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Fort Knox Guard for iPad: secures an iPad together with its attached keyboard as a single unit, built on the same unbreakable metal Fort Knox platform. It keeps charging, button and camera access open for demo or kiosk use, offers mechanical or electronic key lock and integrated cable management, and uses a holder that is interchangeable with the laptop guard and compatible with rail systems.
All are made in Europe and quality certified, and all are backed by Shopguard's track record of protecting merchandise in more than 36,000 stores across 40+ countries over three decades. Browse the complete Shopguard range available through Leading Solutions.
The Bottom Line for Retailers
With retail theft at a 15-year high and offenders getting bolder, "lock it away" is no longer a strategy that protects your margins, because a product a customer can't touch is a product that doesn't sell. Fort Knox lets you put your best stock front and centre, keep it there, and still deliver the hands-on experience that closes the sale.
Security that protects your stock and your sales. That is the point.
Want to see Fort Knox on your shop floor? Browse the full display security range or talk to our team about which Fort Knox holders suit your store. We supply retailers across New Zealand and Australia, with local stock in Auckland.
