Introduction
This statement has been published in accordance with Section 54, Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and outlines the work undertaken by TheWorks.co.uk plc (“The Works” or the “Group”) to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chains.
Our structure and business
The Works is the UK’s leading family-friendly value retailer of arts & crafts, stationery, toys and books. Building on our purpose to inspire reading, learning, creativity and play, our mission is to be the favourite destination for affordable, screen-free activities for the whole family.
The Group offers its product range through its nationwide network of stores and its e-commerce platform. The Group employs more than 3,800 permanent colleagues.
Our supply chain
The Group has commercial relationships with circa 200 suppliers across the UK, Europe and Asia for the supply of its merchandise.
The Group’s main distribution and warehousing facilities at Boldmere House, Coleshill, Birmingham, support the entire store estate. The fulfilment of online sales is undertaken on our behalf by a third-party distribution partner, located in the UK.
Our policies
We conduct business fairly, ethically and with respect to fundamental human rights. We are fully committed to the prevention of all forms of slavery, forced labour or servitude, child labour and human trafficking, both in our business and supply chains.
The Group provides every colleague with a written contract of employment. We pay every colleague in accordance with the law. We comply with our legal obligations to ensure the health and safety of all colleagues, including in relation to working hours, rest breaks and holidays.
The Works has a bilingual (English and Simplified Chinese) Ethical Trading Code of Conduct which is circulated as part of our onboarding process to all new suppliers of merchandise to the business to ensure that our requirements are well communicated and understood by such key external stakeholders.
Our Code of Conduct clearly outlines our social and ethical requirements, which include but are not limited to: Child Labour, Forced Labour, Safety Standards, Health and Hygiene, Associations, Discrimination and Coercion, Working Hours and Wages, and Environmental Impact.
We have written and distributed an Ethical Sourcing Manual to all our suppliers. This manual outlines our ethical sourcing commitments in detail, providing complete clarity on our ethical policies and audit requirements, which play a vital role in governing our trading relationships.
Monitoring and due diligence
At The Works, we recognise the importance of the combination of having a clear set of policies together with a robust due diligence program as key drivers in mitigating the risk of modern slavery across our supply chains.
Firstly, we require all new suppliers of merchandise to sign our Terms and Conditions of Purchase which include references to our Ethical Trading Code of Conduct, and our specific ethical sourcing requirements for our suppliers of merchandise and their associated factories. These Terms and Conditions of Purchase must be signed before The Works will place orders. Secondly, we have conducted a risk assessment on our supplier base of stock products (sold in store and online) in order to form the basis of our supply chain ethical compliance program. This risk assessment considers two core variables: the brand element and the country of origin.
Our commitment and further steps
We are committed to developing long-term relationships with suppliers who share our commitment to eradicating slavery and human trafficking and whose business practices are responsible and ethical.
In support of this, we continue to strengthen our partnership with Verisio, our ethical compliance partner, and utilise their vast wealth of knowledge and experience within the industry to further shape our long-term strategy; this strategy is executed by our dedicated Sourcing team, tasked primarily with driving and coordinating our ethical compliance programme through its evolution.
We continue to make significant progress in grading and risk-assessing our supplier base and their tier 1 manufacturing sites, which serve as the origin of goods supplied to The Works.
Approved and adopted by the Board of TheWorks.co.uk plc on 27 February 2025.
Gavin Peck
Chief Executive Officer