Overview
This Modern Slavery Statement (the "Statement") ispublished in accordance with Section 54, Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It outlines the work undertaken by TheWorks.co.uk plc (“The Works” or the “Group”) during the financial year 1st May 2025 - 30th April 2026 to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.
Our Business Structure & Supply Chain Overview
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.
The Group has commercial relationships with circa 180 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 thirdparty distribution partner, located in the UK
Our Policies
We conduct business fairly and ethically and respect 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.
To support this, we have:
- A bilingual (English and Simplified Chinese) Ethical Trading Code of Conduct, shared with all new suppliers as part of onboarding.
- An Ethical Sourcing Manual, which sets out our ethical standards, audit requirements and expectations for suppliers.
- Terms and Conditions of Purchase that must be signed by all new suppliers of merchandise before orders are placed.
Our Code of Conduct sets out our expectations, 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.
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.
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.
Our due-diligence process begins at onboarding, where all new suppliers of merchandise must 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.
Risk mapping forms a core component of The Work’s ethical compliance programme and is used to inform the prioritisation of due diligence activity across the supply chain.
We segment our stock suppliers into two main categories for the purposes of assessing and managing modern slavery risk:
Own-Brand Suppliers:
Own-brand suppliers are required to declare all tier-1 manufacturing sites involved in the production of goods supplied to The Works. Suppliers are required to provide valid third-party ethical audit reports (from an APSCA registered auditor) for each site. These audit reports together with separate root cause analyses, evidence of corrective and preventative measures of any issues are reviewed and assessed by our ethical compliance partner, Verisio and our in-house sourcing team. Progress against corrective actions is monitored to support continuous improvement. These checks help us identify risk early and maintain visibility of factory standards.
Branded, Licensed and Publisher Suppliers:
Branded suppliers are required to complete an ethical compliance questionnaire covering areas including modern slavery, anti-bribery and corruption, hiring practices, the use of agencies and labour providers, and health and safety policies. Where gaps are identified, evidence is requested and assessed following the same process as our own-brand suppliers.
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.
During this latest reporting period, we have seen measurable improvement across our supplier base.
Our suppliers have highlighted the positive impact that our ethical compliance programme is having across their operations, reinforcing the value of our collaborative approach.
As we evolve our sourcing strategy, our aim is to become the retailer of choice for our partners, fostering trusted, mutually beneficial relationships built on transparency, shared standards and continuous improvement.
Approved and adopted by the Board of TheWorks.co.uk plc on 25 March 2026.
Gavin Peck
Chief Executive Officer