Our Social & Ethical Compliance Auditing programme operates across our entire supplier-base. This programme consists of conducting annual factory audits. Our external audit partner, QUALSPEC SgT, undertakes these on our behalf.

The purpose of these audits is to ensure that our suppliers are following our Supplier Code of Conduct.

Visibility and transparency - the FY20 audit findings.

To give you a better picture of how we are tracking with our supply chain auditing, here are our results for FY20.

Workers’ welfare and safety is a really important aspect of our Code of Conduct, and a cornerstone of our Ethical Factory programme. Auditing is essential for transparency and having visibility into a typical day within a factory.

Positive change in our supplier factories comes as a result of

strong partnerships between us and our suppliers. Understanding context, culture and values leads to open dialogue, respect and better communication. All of this helps us resolve non-compliance issues and deliver ongoing improvements.

That said, most of our factories have some non-compliance breaches that come up in audits. The audit helps us identify root causes and any systemic weaknesses.