The diverse and often complex supply chains producing the food, fashion, beauty, and homeware products we sell can have significant social and environmental impacts. Continuously strengthening our value chains through our ethical sourcing programmes is non-negotiable. It allows us to mitigate where necessary and positively influence the outcomes and impacts of manufacturing and production where possible.
Awareness regarding the transparency of supply chains and the traceability of products is also on the rise. We are working actively to enhance our programmes to address this.
Ethical sourcing requires us to build meaningful and long-term value-sharing relationships with our suppliers and other key stakeholders in the supply chain.
Our main focus is on our private-label primary suppliers and supply chains. This is where we can exert the greatest influence for positive change and more easily monitor performance. We also engage with branded suppliers to ensure our standards are understood and upheld.
Our approach to ethical sourcing comprises:
SUPPLIER CODES OF CONDUCT
We expect our suppliers to share our vision for ethical sourcing. This is outlined in our supplier codes of conduct and various ethical sourcing-related position statements to which suppliers must adhere. These form part of the supplier onboarding process, are included in our supplier contracts and are available on our supplier portals and customer-facing websites.
MONITORING OF SUPPLIERS AND ETHICAL AUDITS
We monitor our suppliers’ performance through various social and ethical audit programmes. We have started broadening our approach beyond audits to include due diligence. We are members of SEDEX, a web-based platform for sharing responsible sourcing data on supply chains.
We are working on converting our suppliers, including their factories and farms, where relevant, to SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA), one of the most widely used ethical audit formats in the world. We also mutually recognise several other audits to allow factories to focus on improvement rather than additional costs, audit fatigue, and disruptions.
PARTNERING
We partner with best-in-class organisations, standards, and certification schemes to tackle complex and systemic issues and strengthen our responsible sourcing and supplier relationships.
BUILDING AWARENESS AND CAPACITY
We ensure ongoing training of our staff and suppliers in human rights, ethics, and responsible commodity sourcing to drive progress in our ethical sourcing commitments. Training is determined based on gaps and opportunities identified by staff or based on common risks found in audits.
The Group sources products from a range of countries across the globe. We are working towards a fully transparent and traceable supply chain that aligns with our commitment to ethical sourcing. Doing so will hold us accountable for ensuring an ethical supply chain and provide visibility to our customers and other stakeholders on the sourcing of products.
Access our supplier lists here:
More information on the focus area and our performance thereon can be found in our annual Good Business Journey Report
