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Corporate Social Responsibility
Thorntons PLC recognises it has social, ethical and environmental responsibilities arising from its operations and it is committed to the welfare of its colleagues, customers, suppliers and the communities in which it operates.
Marketplace
Manufacturing our products
Food safety is of paramount importance to our manufacturing processes and our single site production facilities at Thornton Park are regularly independently audited against the exacting requirements of the British Retail Consortium’s Global Standard for Food Safety and were reaccredited in June 2011 with its highest Grade A status. Additionally our Commercial and Retail brand customers regularly audit and monitor our performance against their own high standards.
Sourcing our materials
Our products use over 300 different raw materials, which are sourced by suppliers from all around the world. The majority of our product range is made with natural colouring and flavours and our entire children’s range contains no artificial colours or added preservatives.
We ensure ethical, social and environmental standards are maintained through the supply chain by auditing and visiting over 95% of our suppliers, including those overseas, on a regular basis. Our main concern is food safety but our audits also review ethics, health and safety, employee pay, employment conditions, use of child labour and environmental policies and practices.
Thorntons is a registered member of GreenPalm, a certificated trading programme exclusively endorsed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil whereby manufacturers offset their use of palm products by paying a producer for an equivalent amount produced sustainably. This gives producers an incentive to work sustainably and allows people whose livelihoods depend on palm oil production to continue making a living.
Thorntons buys all of its cocoa from suppliers that actively support the International Cocoa Initiative and World Cocoa Foundation (“WCF”) programmes to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farm families and promote responsible labour practices. This ensures the ethical sourcing of our cocoa and, in particular, minimises the risk of purchasing cocoa from sources which illegally use abusive or enforced child labour. Thorntons is also itself a member of the WCF which encourages responsible sustainable cocoa farming amongst small family-run farms.
Our customers
We believe in offering customers choices about what they purchase and our product ranges include organic, Fairtrade, no added sugar and dairy-free products. As our products are luxury gift items, they are not viewed as part of a balanced diet, but we do provide advice on consumption and feature detailed nutritional advice on pack labelling, where size permits, so that customers can make an informed choice. Thorntons also provides information on specific ingredients on request, for example whether products are gluten free or contain alcohol.
We undertake regular consumer surveys, which include questions about ethics, and respond to the results of these surveys when developing our products. In addition we obtain feedback from staff serving customers in our stores of their perception of issues that affect customer satisfaction and build them into our plans.
Customer complaints and compliments are handled centrally and we are proud of the process we have established. All complaint investigations are started within 24 hours of receipt and we attempt to resolve each one to the satisfaction of our customers. Our policy is to communicate with our customers in “plain English”. All complaints are recorded so that we can undertake detailed analysis, monitor trends and identify key issues to further improve our performance.
Workplace
Our employees
In addition to providing core remuneration benefits including annual incentive schemes, holidays, sick pay, life assurance and pension provision, Thorntons offers a flexible benefits programme, training and development programmes, discounts and participation in Company share scheme offers. Employees and their immediate families also have access to a confidential counselling and legal assistance helpline that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and the Company has a published procedure for employees to report any concerns confidentially (“whistle blowing policy”).
We regularly survey our employees covering a wide range of issues including Company benefits, working conditions and working relationships with the results of the survey fed back to employees and used to identify and implement improvements.
The Company has a formal process for succession planning to ensure we develop the capability to grow the business in line with our long-term goals. Management performance and development reviews are conducted at least annually. We also regularly monitor our staff turnover rates and use exit interviews to understand reasons why staff leave and ensure improvements are made where appropriate.
" Thorntons PLC recognises it has social, ethical and environmental responsibilities arising from its operations and it is committed to the welfare of its colleagues, customers, suppliers and the communities in which it operates."
Training is available to all staff and we aim to develop both individuals and teams in line with our business needs such that we grow our organisational capability.
Health and safety
In order to ensure continual improvement in health and safety, Thorntons has a three-year safety improvement programme and central to this programme are regular health and safety risk assessments. Incidents and accidents are monitored and reviewed in the workplace so that we can take appropriate action to improve working conditions whilst remaining focused on reducing both the absolute number of accidents and reportable accidents. The lost time accident frequency rating (a measure of the number of accidents per 100,000 hours worked) continues to improve (2011: 2.1; 2010: 2.4; 2009: 2.6).
A Production Health and Safety Committee meets regularly to discuss unresolved health and safety matters and reviews statistics on accidents and lost time accidents.
Independent external health and safety audits are conducted at least once every two years in both manufacturing and Own Stores and improvements are made in line with any recommendations.
Occupational health
Whilst always aiming to minimise accidents occurring in the workplace, we also work with our insurers and have improved our occupational health service to employees by providing post-accident access to private medical services, which can assist with the rehabilitation process. We also use an external occupational health company and a doctor to provide us with health management services. Free eye tests and spectacles, where required, are provided for all VDU operatives. We also have a wellbeing policy to help deal with stress at work.
Environment
Energy and waste
Our major impacts on the environment are energy use and the generation of waste and our priorities lie in improving our environmental performance in these areas. Our usage of gas, electricity and water is regularly monitored, as is our waste recycling and landfill performance. Submeters for all utilities are installed throughout our manufacturing facility which improves our monitoring and aids us in targeting specific areas for improvements.
A number of initiatives have helped reduce energy consumption and costs across the site and the production process, including replacing over 500 metal halide lights in the warehouse with energy efficient T5 fluorescent lighting and controls, modifying the steam system and reducing the stirring time of chocolate in our bulk tanks. Energy consumption per tonne of product produced has consequently reduced from 4,330 kWh/tonne in 2009/10 to 3,817 kWh/tonne in 2010/11. Where possible, when replacing or purchasing new equipment, energy efficient equipment is selected.
Looking forward a major project for a 2.145MW combined heat and power generating plant (“CHP”) has been provisionally approved by the Board. The CHP plant to be sited in Thornton Park will generate almost all of our electricity requirements on site as well as generating steam, hot water and cooling for the production facilities.
Energy efficient fittings and lamps are fitted in all our Own Stores, and a rolling programme to replace our air conditioning with energy efficient equipment free from ozone depleting refrigerants is close to completion. This is expected to deliver energy savings of around 20% per site.
With regard to waste management, an integrated waste management contract seeks to improve both the segregation and the proportion of waste recycled, including plastic wrapping, sheets and moulds, metal straps and cardboard. We have continued to maintain the overall proportion of recycled waste (70%) at the previous two years’ level despite continuing increases in volumes produced. Other recent recycling initiatives include the introduction of refuse derived fuel from our packing factory waste and dedicated recycling stations across our factories to help encourage staff to segregate waste and improve our overall waste performance. Cardboard generated in our Retail outlets is returned to our production site at Thornton Park in the returning lorries and then recycled.
Packaging
We continue to monitor the overall environmental impact of using more recycled materials in all components. Packaging is also a key issue for the Company and we have developed environmental policies for the procurement of packaging and continue to progress towards sourcing Forest Stewardship Council approved materials for our cartons.
We continue to find ways to reduce packaging (as measured by the percentage of cardboard packaging to product) across our products range.
Transport
Initiatives to reduce the impact of our products on the environment are principally designed to reduce fuel consumption through improved efficiency of vehicles or their movements. As vehicles are replaced, more fuel efficient and lower emission vehicles, which exceed current European emission requirements, are purchased. The vehicle manufacturer also provides training to drivers on more efficient driving methods.
With regard to lorry movements we back-haul raw materials and packaging from suppliers, as well as cardboard for recycling from our Own Stores in empty vehicles returning to our production site and also make use of “thermal containers” in our trailers. These containers are frozen at our production site and loaded onto vehicles at the last possible moment. As chiller units are not required, fuel efficiency increases and there is more efficient utilisation of space within the trailer.
The outsourcing of the distribution and warehousing functions to DHL, a leading expert in the distribution field, was completed in July 2011. DHL is committed to improving its CO2 efficiency and minimising its environmental impact in line with its “GoGreen” approach towards environmental protection.
Community
The seasonal nature of our business means that we employ a large number of temporary staff from the local community at both our production site and nationally in our Own Stores; we have a policy to recruit staff locally in order to provide a benefit to the local community. We have subsequently been able to offer a number of temporary staff permanent positions.
Many of our ingredients are sourced from local, UK based suppliers and this factor is considered in our purchasing decisions for both ingredients and packaging of goods.
Thorntons seeks to build new relationships through local school activities and work placement schemes.
A staff Charity Committee is actively involved in raising money for children’s charities. Last year staff raised in the region of £52,000 for the NSPCC with the Charity Committee co-ordinating a range of initiatives. These included sponsorship from suppliers and staff for runners in the London marathon, arranging collection points in stores and running a Charity Football Day for the Company’s suppliers at Derby County’s football ground, together with a number of centenary celebration events continuing through the remainder of 2011. During the year a special limited edition chocolate block made with chocolate from Haiti was sold with a donation of 90p from each block raising £45,000 for Save The Children’s Haiti earthquake appeal. Our Own Stores are also actively encouraged to support local charitable activities.
It is the policy of the Board not to make any political donations.
Further information on Thorntons’ approach to corporate social responsibility can be found on the Company’s web site: www.thorntons.co.uk.