Our value chain plays a key role in achieving our sustainability goals and conducting business ethically. Since 2023, we have increased engagement with our upstream value chain to identify gaps in supplier relationship management. A key step has been setting minimum requirements for suppliers and specific commodities to ensure responsible practices and acceptable standards. 

While most of our suppliers are located near our factories, we recognise that risks can exist deeper in the value chain. To manage this effectively and select the right partners, we also hold ourselves accountable—working from a shared moral foundation outlined in our Business Code of Conduct.

Business conduct training

Collaboration with stakeholders in many different countries, industries and situations demands a clearly defined ethical compass from our colleagues. Therefore, we have trained our colleagues to become more aware of ethical business behaviour both online and offline. In 2024, 446 colleagues were trained in business ethics and we will continue to train our colleagues annually. Through these training courses we aim to keep our company values and principles, while enabling colleagues to make ethical decisions in their daily activities.

Supplier management

After evaluating our supplier due diligence process in 2023, we decided to update our supplier onboarding and evaluation processes to generate objective information about supplier performance and risk profile. Our risk profile focuses on several topics, including financial, operational, environmental, social and governance.

In 2024, we started onboarding suppliers to our new supplier relationship management (SRM) tool. In late 2024, we marked onboarded suppliers with a risk profile to start up conversations about improvement areas, necessary actions and, if necessary, internal or external audits initiated by Royal Ahrend. 

Supply chain risks

In 2024, we finalised a high-level risk map based on supplier location, commodity, spending and several ESG topics. Through this first analysis, we were able to benchmark supply chain risks throughout our supplier base and manage these risks in more detail in the coming years. The main risks in our supply chain are attributable to health and safety in our suppliers’ operations. Through our new onboarding process, we are able to manage our supply chain risks more effectively.