Rising concerns over the resilience of global supply chains trying to cope with the continuing disruption caused by the Covid pandemic have contributed to a record rise in annual membership growth for the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) in Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA).
The world’s leading supply chain resilience and security association welcomed over 100 new company members in 2020, while a further 14 businesses joined in January 2021, an increase of more than 70% over the opening month of last year. TAPA’s near 650 members in the EMEA region include Manufacturers, Logistics Service Providers, Security Service Providers, Parking Place Operators, Insurers, Law Enforcement Agencies, and other partner associations.
2020 saw TAPA’s membership numbers grow in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Thorsten Neumann, President & CEO of TAPA EMEA, said: “Our membership has been growing steadily in recent years but we welcomed a record number of new members in 2020 as the resilience of supply chains all over the world came under the spotlight of governments, companies and consumers as the Covid pandemic spread. Clearly, more companies are recognising TAPA as a proven partner to help protect and secure their supply chains, and they understand the advantages of being part of the world’s largest community of supply chain resilience and security professionals. We expect to see above-average growth again in 2021 as continuing disruption leads companies to work with new partners and in new geographies, which all bring associated security risks.”
TAPA is also seeing increased demand for its supply chain security standards across the EMEA region with record levels of certifications for its Facility Security Requirements (FSR), Trucking Security Requirements (TSR), and Parking Security Requirements (PSR).
As well as its industry standards, TAPA supports its members’ risk management and loss prevention programmes by providing cargo theft intelligence to help companies understand when and where product losses from supply chains are occurring, the types of criminal attacks, the products targeted and the modus operandi being used. In addition to its Incident Information Service (IIS), TAPA also provides a database of secure truck parking locations to help members plan safe transportation routes for high value, theft targeted goods, as well as training services.
