Supermarket giant Coles has been hit by a spike in thefts and threats to its workers, with organised crime networks behind many incidents.

The company said during the release of its annual results yesterday that organised crime and “opportunistic theft” and were behind stock losses, including meats.

She said the introduction of expensive theft prevention measures in stores, such as automated security gates and camera monitoring, had reduced stock loss to 2015 levels.

But the safety of Coles staff remained a major worry.

“Despite the investments that we’ve made in safety initiatives for our team, we are continuing to see increases in threatening situations in store,” Weckert said.

“And it is definitely the case that in Victoria, retail crime is escalating more than what we are seeing in other states.”

Coles is just one of multiple major retailers facing a wave of shoplifting and threats to workers in the state.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan this week pledged to introduce new laws aimed at protecting retail workers from rising crime levels.

Victoria Police declined to comment.