It is important that our suppliers apply the same principles of value, transparency and respect as we do, to ensure our products are sourced and manufactured in a fair, ethical and environmentally responsible manner.

ASSESSING SUPPLIERS

The Group undertakes audits and questionnaires for each supplier, including physical site audits for all our major ingredient suppliers and for new suppliers. We take into consideration their environmental policies, whether they have a formal recognised Environmental Management System and any third-party certification held by the supplier, that is to Global Food Safety Initiative recognised standards. We request specific information on environmental impacts in our questionnaires (GHG, CO2 , water use, resource utilisation, waste and pollution targets and performance) and follow up in our physical audits of suppliers, where  we discuss any non-conformance and agreed actions. We request information from all our suppliers on social issues, including child or forced labour, equal opportunities, non-discrimination, freedom of association, labour practices (such as avoidance of excessive hours, minimum wage) and health and safety standards. We assess for the potential for poor labour conditions during the physical audits of all our major raw material suppliers, although the risk of this is low given our suppliers are large production processes or large reputable organisations. We use this compliance information to make decisions overseen by the Group Supply Chain Director. All non-conformance is required to be corrected promptly.

VULNERABILITY ASESSMENT

For raw materials we complete a quality and food safety vulnerability risk assessment including the quality controls of the manufacturer and traceability. All our raw materials suppliers provide their environmental policies and relevant data