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Modern Slavery Statement

About us

Dobbies Garden Centres Group Limited and its subsidiaries (“Dobbies”) is the UK’s leading garden centre retailer with 77 centres throughout the UK and a growing online business. Our product range extends to plants, gardening, food, pet, indoor and outdoor living together with restaurants in most of our centres

We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all of our business dealings and relationships, together with the implementation and enforcement of effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains

This Modern Slavery Statement is made in relation to the financial year ending 25 February 2024

Our products

Seventy-four percent of our plants and gardening products are sourced from within the UK. In 2023, we reviewed and refined our supplier base, with a reduced number of suppliers providing products to us. Where possible, we are committed to simplifying our supply chain and sourcing directly

Integrity of our supply chain

Rigorous procedures are in place to ensure the integrity of all our suppliers. In particular, we are focused on building confidence and strong relationships with reputable suppliers and import partners from the Far East, ensuring we make informed sourcing decisions

The standards which we set for our suppliers include the following:

  • Commitment to our Responsible Sourcing Policy (formerly our Ethical Standards Policy);

  • Contractual requirements to comply with UK anti-slavery and anti-bribery laws, together with general obligations to act fairly and in good faith at all times;

  • Sedex membership with “in date” satisfactory ethical audits for all factories in the Far East; and other non-European supply chains; and

  • Satisfactory visits as a result of our internal ethical standards assessment

Furthermore, where possible, we only engage suppliers whose factories we have visited in person. Our internal ethical standards assessment is based upon the Ethical Trading Initiative. Areas of focus include colleague facilities and welfare standards, organisation of manufacturing areas, hygiene and cleanliness, and evidence of secure working practices. These inspections are completed by our Commercial & Technical teams. Where possible and according to risk, our practice is to visit all new direct factories prior to supply with subsequent continuation visits throughout the working relationship

We will only engage with suppliers who meet all of these requirements on a continuing basis

Training

We have an experienced buying team in place with defined areas of product focus, led by our Commercial Director who has significant far east sourcing experience. In addition, all colleagues in our Central Support Office have completed anti-slavery training via our e-learning platform and are able to recognise potential risks. Our “speaking up” policy actively encourages colleagues to alert us if they have any concerns. Our anti-slavery policy has recently been updated and is available to all colleagues on our intranet

Compliance in 2024 – and looking forward

Our partnership with Sedex provides transparency in relation to ethical audits and self-audit metrics for our suppliers’ factories. We are pleased to report that our suppliers reported 100% compliance during the year. Furthermore, no ethical sourcing concerns have been reported to date in relation to our current suppliers

However, we are not complacent and, in addition to maintaining close working relationships with each supplier, we recognise the potential risks in our far east supply chain as we work to increase our volume of direct relationships with supplying factories. Therefore, as a further safeguard, it is our plan is to work closer than ever before to our supply chain and increase our physical presence in the far east through more factory visits and checks and ultimately, we want to have a permanent presence in the far east. We are also considering mandating Sedex membership across the remainder of our supply chain and will report on these actions in our 2025 statement

Board approval

For the purposes of Section 54 (Transparency in Supply Chains) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, this statement is Dobbies’ Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement for the financial year ending on 25 February 2024. It was approved by Dobbies’ Board of Directors in May 2024

 

Debbie Harding

Chief People and Corporate Officer