This statement is published in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and includes the steps we have taken during our 2023 financial year (ending December 31st 2023 to ensure that trafficking and modern slavery do not take place in our value chains – including both our own business and our supply chain.
We are committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our corporate activities and to ensuring our supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.
To date, there have been no identified instances of modern slavery within SHS Group, its subsidiaries, or its supply chain.
SHS Group incorporates several subsidiaries as detailed below. Across our divisions, we have a global supply chain spanning over 35 countries and have worked in partnership with several of our key suppliers for multiple decades.
Our products are supplied to several major UK retailers and other food manufacturers.
Human trafficking and slavery have no place in the modern world. We are committed to ensuring there is no modern slavery or human trafficking within our supply chains or in any part of our business and protecting our employees from exploitation.
We comply with or exceed all legal requirements surrounding employee rights, health and safety and ethical responsibilities. We have therefore developed policies, processes and procures across the SHS Group to reflect our commitment to acting ethically and sustainably and by implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking are not taking place anywhere within our supply chains. These include our:
We have an extensive supply chain and recognise the risk presented by human trafficking and slavery within this.
We adhere to the principles of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code along with specific requirements set by our customers’ ethical standards. We, therefore, require suppliers to be fully aligned to the ETI base code within our supplier management process as a minimum standard.
We work to keep our supply chains as short as practicable. We review supplier performance frequently and audit suppliers regularly, basing frequency upon a number of factors including any inherent or increased risks of modern slavery and ethical considerations. All our supplier audits include ethical criteria based upon the ETI base code, including risks of modern slavery.
Permanent employment is better for colleagues and limits the risk of human trafficking or modern slavery within our business. Where we use agency workers this is to fill short–term employment needs, and we only use long-term partners that operate to our own high standards.
We also have established a transparent and open process to support our 1,200 employees in raising concerns through a Whistleblowing telephone line, run 24/7 by an independent third party.
We provide our HR and Operations employees with training to help them identify potential issues and how to deal with them.
We use supplier performance scorecards and KPIs as part of our supplier risk management. We regularly audit our suppliers and include ethical considerations and criteria, including those around risks of modern slavery and child labour within the chain. We use resources such as Sedex to support our work on this. Sustainable Sourcing is one our key priority areas in our sustainability strategy.
In 2021, our British Pepper & Spice business launched a new bespoke sustainability risk ranking and supplier scorecard as part of its 2025 sustainability objectives. This included risk assessing over 160 countries’ inherent sustainability risks and collating best practice guidance and data.
We are also members of various organisations promoting responsible business such as Business in the Community. In 2021, we received the BITC NI Core Responsible Business Standard as part of our continued responsible business progress.
During our 2023 financial year, we will be doing the following:
It is important for SHS Group to be transparent and accountable in our actions and therefore we have identified a set of KPIs. These KPIs will be reported annually within this Modern Slavery Statement and reviewed to enable us to identify risk across our business and through our supply chain to drive improvement.
Key performance indicators;
Signed by: Chris Lillie, HR Director, SHS Group
Date: 24th July 2023