Beiersdorf UK Ltd will review annually the steps it has taken to address
the risks of slavery and human trafficking in its business and in its supply
chain, including the effectiveness of internal processes for reporting and
escalation of issues.
Beiersdorf’s Corporate Sustainability team annually conducts a risk
assessment of all approximately 25,000 direct suppliers of Beiersdorf
affiliates including those who supply Beiersdorf UK Ltd. The process consists
of appraising the country-related risk as well as the individual supplier’s
significance to Beiersdorf in terms of procurement volume and brand proximity.
The country-related risk is determined by taking into account the country-risk
assessments made by the international organizations Transparency International
(TI), the Walk Free Foundation, the International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC) and the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Yale University.
The screening differentiates between the risk levels low, medium and
high. Direct suppliers rated medium or high risk are required to provide a
comprehensive self-assessment via the Sedex platform to enable an even more
thorough risk assessment. The Corporate Sustainability team in Hamburg then
decides whether a subsequent audit is required. These audits are carried out by
accredited external auditors commissioned by the supplier and follow the
standardized “Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit” (SMETA) 4-Pillar Audit
Protocol. The audit results highlight specific challenges and any areas where
action is required, for which our suppliers then work out corrective action
plans with our support. In extreme cases, the audit results may lead to us
excluding suppliers from our supply-chain network.
Additionally, Beiersdorf has a Supplier
Code of Conduct Implementation Process which
entails risk profiling, risk assessments and audits. This is also described in
the sustainability report.
Lastly, incidents can be reported on Beiersdorf’s incident reporting platform. More information on this
platform can be found on the global website and the platform itself.