Policies & approach / Ethical trading

Brakes expects suppliers, both in their own companies and those of their suppliers, to commit to work towards full compliance with labour standards based upon those set by the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) and which reflect the key elements of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.

We are committed to ethical and environmental best practice in all our activities. Like many other food companies we source food from around the world to ensure we offer our customers a wide choice of delicious, unusual and innovative products and to increase year-round availability. Ethical trading is central to our trading philosophy, which has involved building up the expertise of all supplier facing staff on ethical trading so that they can take a common approach to interfacing with suppliers on this issue. Ethical trading considerations are central to our supplier selection process.

In addition we carry out third party audits on a limited number of ‘high risk’
suppliers based on whether the supplier produces Brakes own brand products, their level of turnover with us, the ethical profile of the country and the product. When procuring from outside the EU, we will only use suppliers whose facilities are of the equivalent EU approved standard and would never knowingly accept food products from suppliers who exploit the people or natural resources of their environment.

We are committed to a policy of delivering product to customers in a socially responsible manner by setting our own ethical trading standards laid out in a Code of Conduct that relates to both our operations and our supply chain.

The principles laid out in the Brakes Code of Conduct are as follows:
• Employment is freely chosen
• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining is respected
• Safe and hygienic working conditions
• No recruitment of child labour
• Living wages are paid
• Working hours are not excessive
• No discrimination is practiced
• Regular employment is provided
• No harsh or inhumane treatment allowed

Companies must comply with all national and other applicable law regulations regarding all aspects of this Code of Conduct. Understanding the impact of our sourcing decisions in a global market is one of our commercial teams’ key areas of focus. We continue to focus on improving conditions for our suppliers and the people that work for them over the coming years.