Fair Supply Chains
The supply chains of many imported products are often those most vulnerable to worker exploitation, shockingly low pay, child labour, modern slavery and market volatility, as well as environmental mismanagement that damages habitats and, in some cases, threatens the supply itself. Imported products are an important part of our business, but we want to ensure we’re not part of the problem.
In our sourcing and cafés
We prioritise organic and champion Fair Trade
We prioritise organic certified products; although organic certification is more commonly associated with environmental standards, fairness is in fact one of the four principles of organic laid out by IFOAM (the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements). By supporting organic supply chains, we’re opening the door to more products from farms managed with workers’ rights and safety in mind.
We recognise the strength of Fair Trade certification in ensuring responsible supply chains, and champion it wherever possible. We also know that some of our suppliers have close direct relationships with the people who make and grow their ingredients, providing huge benefits to producers and consumers alike.
We’re committed to being especially vigilant of imported produce and products containing ingredients whose supply chains and production methods are often open to exploitation, such as cocoa, sugar and cotton, among many others. For such ingredients, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that the majority of our stock is certified organic or Fair Trade, or comes from supply chains we can trust.
Our cafés also prioritise organic or Fair Trade for imported ingredients, such as cocoa, sugar, tea, coffee, nuts and fruit.
In our practice
All our break rooms are kitted out with organic or double-certified tea, coffee and sugar, so that our team can help themselves to an ethical drink on their breaks. Our team aprons are made from certified organic cotton.
Where we want to be
We’re proud of the variety of products we offer with either organic or Fair Trade certification, or from carefully selected suppliers with direct relationships, but we know we can always do better. We have targets to increase our range of organic products, and will continue to source as many products as possible that also have Fair Trade certification.
How are we keeping an eye on this policy and putting it into practice?
We ask all new suppliers to tell us about their supply chains and ingredients, including Fair Trade and organic certification, and any direct trade relationships they are part of. Our buying team, and health and bodycare manager actively seek out products from organic and fair supply chains, and will replace any product where the ethical credentials of the ingredients are found not to be in line with our policy. We have begun an audit of all current stock, prioritising products that contain ingredients that come from supply chains that might be vulnerable to unfair trade and environmental mismanagement.
Read more on this policy
Five things you didn’t know were Fair Trade
A Fairtrade Break – the difference Fairtrade makes