Responsible Sourcing

Our Approach

We want to make sure that everyone working across our supply chain and in our own sites works in safe and healthy conditions, receives a fair wage and is treated with dignity. We promote and respect human rights throughout our entire supply chain, whether it’s packing Ovaltine in our factory in Thailand, growing cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire or making plastic jars in China. We do this through our Ethical Sourcing Programme.

We also know that we rely on a range of high quality raw materials for our delicious Options and Ovaltine products, which is why we are committed to sourcing ingredients in a responsible and sustainable way.

We also care for the communities involved in making our products around the world, from remote cocoa farmers and their families to communities living near factories. We run a series of projects aimed at improving the quality of life and livelihoods of these communities.

You can read all about our work in our 2017 Responsible Sourcing Report here.

Trading Ethically

Our own factories and first-tier suppliers are covered by our Ethical Sourcing Programme and Code of Conduct. Our Code of Conduct is at the heart of our Ethical Sourcing Programme and all of our suppliers must commit to it. It is based on the main conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Base Code of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).

For both existing and new suppliers we run a risk assessment to assess labour rights risks at the sites where our goods are manufactured or our raw materials processed. This risk assessment guides us on what action needs to be taken, whether that is asking them to make changes to adhere to our Code of Conduct, reviewing further data or commissioning a third party ethical audit. We continue to reassess these risks throughout the commercial relationship.

We like to take a collaborative approach and so we offer training workshops, awareness sessions and other guidance for our sites around the world to help build their capacity to deal with ethical and legal requirements and ensure workplace improvements are made for the long term.

Caring for Our Communities

We are working in Côte d’Ivoire to protect children and improve lives in cocoa growing communities in our supply chain. Through our programme, we raise awareness of child rights and child protection within the communities and establish a support network for children, whilst also strengthening education infrastructure, such as rebuilding classrooms. There is also support for women and youth groups in order to build sustainable income-generating activities so that families can afford to send their children to school.

Some of the impacts of the first phase of the programme include:

• One block of three classrooms has been constructed in each community, and three existing classrooms have been renovated, providing access to education facilities for 316 children. 
• Creation of women’s groups and training on how to grow cassava, yams, corn and peanut to help generate an additional family income. 
• Establishment and training of Community Service Groups composed of young adults. These provide affordable adult labour in order to reduce the risk of children being hired instead. 
• 325 farmers have been trained in Good Agricultural Practices through Farmer Field Schools in each community. 
• 900 community members have been reached by awareness session on child labour.
• 80 children have received a birth certificate.
• The child labour rate is significantly lower (11%) in communities benefitting from the project than for communities not benefitting from the project (25%).