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Corporate Social Responsibility
Committed to integrity
We are committed to the welfare of our colleagues, customers, suppliers and the communities in which we operate.
Thorntons PLC recognises it has social, ethical and environmental responsibilities arising from its operations and is committed to the welfare of our colleagues, customers, suppliers and the communities in which we operate.
Marketplace
Manufacturing our products
Food safety is paramount 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 recently retained its highest Grade A status. Additionally our commercial and retailer 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 our 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. Our product range includes an organic range and we launched our first 'Fairtrade' products during the year.
We ensure ethical, social and environmental standards are maintained throughout the supply chain by auditing and visiting 95% of our suppliers 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 member of the World Cocoa Foundation ("WCF"). One of the WCF's objectives is to encourage responsible sustainable cocoa farming amongst small family run businesses and to help improve the conditions of cocoa farmers.
Customers
We believe in offering customers choices about what they purchase and offer both organic and diabetic ranges. During the year we introduced a range of Fairtrade products and Dairy-Free Easter Eggs. As our products are luxury gift items, they are not viewed as part of a balanced diet, but we can provide advice on consumption and do inform consumers about nutrients through the pack labelling, where size permits. Thorntons also provides information on specific ingredients on request, e.g. 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 this feedback into our plans.
Customer complaints 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 a detailed analysis, monitor trends and identify key issues to 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 on products and services and participation in Company share scheme offers. Employees and their immediate families also have access to a confidential counselling and legal assistance helpline which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and the Company has a published procedure ("whistle blowing policy") for employees to report any concerns confidentially.
We survey all of 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 all 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 annually. We also regularly monitor our staff turnover rates and use exit interviews to understand the reasons why staff leave and ensure improvements are made where appropriate.
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. Manual handling and slips, trips and falls are our major causes of lost-time accidents. Clear manual handling control measures introduced have resulted in the reduction of manual handling by up to 75% on one of our main production lines.
We monitor and review the incidents and accidents in the workplace so that we can take appropriate action to improve working conditions and we remain focused on reducing both the absolute number of accidents and the number of reportable accidents. In order to improve the safety of visitors, employees and contractors around the site we have introduced pedestrian and vehicle segregation in areas of high traffic flow. There are also formal procedures for accepting visitors and contractors on to the production site and into the Retail estate.
Environment
The replacement of the air-conditioning equipment means that the estate should be completely free from ozone depleting refrigerants by the end of 2010.
| Key issues/objectives | How we monitor our performance |
|---|---|
Marketplace
|
Grade A BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Always use reputable global cocoa suppliers with proven track records in ethical standards; Member of World Cocoa Foundation; 95% of suppliers visited and/or audited regularly All complaints recorded, analysed and trends monitored to identify emerging patterns to improve our performance |
Workplace
|
Business-wide employee satisfaction survey results monitored, fed back to employees and improvements made RIDDOR Accident Incident Rate down to 63 from 83 in 2007 |
|
Environment Waste
|
Committed to continue reducing packaging -22% on core Easter 2009 range equivalent to 73 tonnes of packaging 721 tonnes waste to landfill 2009 (38%)*1,191 tonnes waste recycled 2009 (62%)*Department of Energy and Climate Change reduction targets exceeded in each of last 4 years** Figures excl. Retail estate |
Community
|
Staff raised in excess of £35,000 for Children with Leukemia, the elected charity for 2009 |
| Thorntons is working closely with Business in the Community to further improve its processes and performance monitoring across all areas that its business touches. | |
Health and safety continued
A health and safety site committee meets regularly to discuss unresolved health and safety matters and review accident statistics.
An independent external health and safety audit was conducted during the year and accident reporting procedures were significantly improved.
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 will assist with the rehabilitation process. We also use an external occupational health company to provide us with health management services and a doctor attends Thornton Park weekly. Free eye tests and spectacles, where required, are provided for all users of VDUs. We have also introduced a wellbeing policy to help deal with stress at work. During the year noise assessments across Thornton Park were conducted together with audiometric screening for all relevant employees.
Energy and waste
Our major impact on the environment is waste management and energy use 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 have been installed throughout our manufacturing facility during the year which will further improve our monitoring and aid us to target specific areas for improvements.
A number of initiatives helped reduce energy consumption at our production site such as reducing compressed air and steam leaks and high frequency battery chargers. Where possible, when replacing or purchasing new equipment, energy efficient equipment is selected.
A programme to replace the lighting in all our Retail stores was completed during the year and we took the opportunity to install energy efficient fittings and lamps throughout.
We also embarked on a rolling programme to replace our air conditioning with energy efficient equipment, delivering energy savings of around 20% per site; nearly 50% of the estate will have the new equipment by the autumn of this year with the balance planned to be finished during 2010. The replacement of the air-conditioning equipment means that the estate should be completely free from ozone depleting refrigerants by the end of 2010.
With regard to waste management, an integrated waste management contract with our contractor improved both the segregation and the proportion of waste recycled including plastic wrapping, sheets and moulds, metal straps and cardboard. Cardboard generated in our Retail outlets is returned to our production site at Thornton Park in the returning empty lorries. All staff are encouraged to recycle eneral office consumables including paper and printer toners.
We have introduced the back hauling of raw materials and packaging from suppliers, as well as cardboard for recycling from our Retail stores, in vehicles returning to our production site.
Packaging
A major initiative to reduce packaging on our 2009 Easter eggs and products successfully resulted in a 22% reduction.
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 ("FSC") approved materials for our cartons. We continue to monitor the overall environmental impact of using more recycled materials in all components.
A major initiative to reduce packaging on our 2009 Easter eggs and products successfully resulted in a 22% reduction (as measured by the percentage of cardboard packaging to product).
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 we purchase more fuel efficient and lower emission vehicles, which exceed current European emission requirements. The vehicle manufacturer also provides training to drivers on more efficient driving methods.
With regard to lorry movements we have introduced the back hauling of raw materials and packaging from suppliers, as well as cardboard for recycling from our Retail stores in empty vehicles returning to our production site. We also make use of 'thermal containers' in our trailers which 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 frequency of deliveries, fuel costs and consumption have all been reduced in the year by reviewing the mix of vehicles used and ensuring that, wherever possible, full loads are carried.
Community
The seasonal nature of our business means that we employ a large number of temporary staff from the local community in our production and indeed we have a policy to recruit staff locally in order to provide a benefit to the local community. We have 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 retains links with its former staff through annual outings and dinners and builds 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 the committee raised over £35,000 for Children With Leukaemia by co-ordinating a range of initiatives including 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. Our Retail stores are encouraged to support local charitable activities and another project raises money for Guide Dogs for the Blind through sponsorship of participants in the Coniston Challenge. It is the policy of the Board not to make any political donations.