We care about ethical business practices.
Through robust supplier engagement, regular audits and a clear Code of Conduct, we will ensure our suppliers meet our expectations when deciding on who, what and where we source from.
People update
In order to the support the execution of our supply chain objectives, this year we have recruited a dedicated sourcing manager whose role will be to lead and take ownership for implementing new ways of working both internally across the commercial teams and externally within our supplier base. This individual is responsible for driving and co-ordinating our key supplier relationships, supplier assessment, supplier strategy and supplier engagement; maximising efficiencies in how we operate and the end-to-end management of our key partners.
During the course of FY24, we have introduced a quality assurance team, whose primary responsibilities relate to the management of, and adherence to, all applicable product safety, quality and sustainability standards within the UK and EU. Since the quality assurance team’s inception, we have made significant progress in nsuring our suppliers are aligned with our standards in these areas.
Supplier data
Our goal is to implement a transparent process to understand and hold relevant data on our total supplier base, with the ability to assess them and engage with them to drive key partnerships. In the last year we have laid the foundations for achieving this goal through establishing a supplier database so that it can be used as an effective tool for stakeholders to understand an individual supplier’s status, or to evaluate our supplier base on a more holistic level.
We have made significant progress in supply chain transparency, which has been aided by our recently formed relationship with our ethical supply chain partner, Verisio, enabling us to engage with our total supplier base to map our tier 1 supply chain, whilst also capturing factory ethical audit reports as part of the process.
Supplier standards
As part of our Supplier On-Boarding process, we require all suppliers to sign our Terms and Conditions of Purchase and our Ethical Trading Code of Conduct, and agree to the requirements set out in our Supplier Manual.
We have refreshed our Ethical Trading Code of Conduct to contain an enhanced set of supplier requirements, which has been signed by all active suppliers.
In FY25 we will be setting out our audit requirements for our own brand suppliers and their factories, which will become a mandatory condition for purchase. All audit reports obtained as part of this ongoing project will be risk assessed by Verisio, using a risk matrix defined by the Group, and factories will be graded.
For our branded suppliers and publishers, we will issue a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) which will capture information required to ensure that they are managing their factory sites in line with our requirements.
Sourcing strategy
In FY24, we have identified the need to develop a process to assess our supplier base objectively. We have categorised our suppliers into distinct groups based on various parameters, which include factors such as the supplier’s significance to the business, their performance, the level of risk they pose, and their strategic value.
In FY25, we aim to improve this approach by ensuring the categorisation process is as comprehensive as possible, capturing tangible feedback based on pre-defined criteria. The output of this process will be in the form of a supplier scorecard. The supplier scorecard will provide a structured and visual manner to comprehend the dynamics of the supplier base, enabling us to make informed decisions about supplier management.
We have identified supplier rationalisation opportunities in order to streamline the business’ spend to fewer suppliers and drive better value from those relationships. These opportunities will be explored further during FY25.
