Holland & Barrett has been forced to employ undercover detectives to counter a rise in shoplifters targeting its premium products.

The wellness chain has enlisted plain-clothes operatives to root out the increasing number of criminals who have turned their focus to the company’s compact and more expensive products, such as manuka honey.

Anthony Houghton, its group chief executive, told The Times: “The behaviour on the high street, it’s just not acceptable. It’s awful that we have to do this.”

As part of its efforts to tackle shoplifting, the company has also enlisted Auror, a retail crime intelligence firm, to supply data on the stores most at risk and in need of private operatives.

The retailer also stocks a range of small, premium sports nutrition products, such as a £54, 480g organic bone-broth supplement.

The company said that such items were often stolen for resale on the secondary black market.

In its most recent annual report, Holland & Barrett also noted a “rise in incidents directed at colleagues”. All employees at the firm now wear on-body cameras.

Shoplifting offences in Britain surged for more than a decade after laws came into force in 2014, which meant that anybody stealing less than £200 of products would not be jailed. Labour has since abolished the limit.

Shoplifting offences subsequently climbed and hit a record high of 530,643 last year.

Lucy Whing, a crime policy adviser at trade body British Retail Consortium, said firms needed to do more to combat the problem.

“Theft remains a huge issue, with prolific offenders and organised criminal gangs systematically targeting one store after another,” she said.

Ms Whing added that better intelligence-sharing and robust enforcement by retailers were critical to turning the tide on retail crime.

In April, Greggs decided to remove display cabinets at a group of its London stores most targeted by shoplifters. It came after figures in March showed a year-on-year increase of about 20 per cent.

Co-Op, the supermarket chain, has also ramped up its security on small-ticket items by fitting GPS trackers to products including Cumberland sausages.

The firm said earlier this year that the policy had helped reduce overall retail crime in its stores by 21 per cent.

Holland & Barrett was unavailable for comment.