Choosing our suppliers carefully is an important part of our approach to building and maintaining a responsible business. Wherever possible, our policy is to use local suppliers. This helps us support our community and also reduces the energy wasted in deliveries.

Dencowear also audits our major suppliers to ensure that they follow responsible and ethical working practices. Please see our suppliers’ manual for more information

We also believe that our suppliers should be treated fairly. We will endeavour to pay suppliers on time and would never abuse our position by taking advantage of a business that relies on us to deal with them honestly and fairly. Dencowear views all key suppliers as genuine partners who should be valued as a key part of our own business model.

Our company also ensures that any factory we use adheres to the SA8000 standard as an auditable certification standard based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the child. Our current partner factory is same company that is fulfilling large NHS contracts. They are also members of the Ethical Trading Initiative which guarantees commitment to decent working conditions and safeguards the human rights of its workers. Specifically by following this standard we ensure that we are compliant with 8 performance criteria:

1. Child Labour

2. Forced and Compulsory Labour

3. Health and Safety

4. Freedom of Association and Right to Collective Bargaining:

5. Discrimination

6. Disciplinary Practices

7. Working Hours

8. Remuneration

As part of our supply chain policy, we would only ever use suppliers who adhere to the SA8000 standard, and this is laid out in our supplier manual. We are also privy to internal Sedex reports as part of our supplier management meetings.

The benefits to our business of adopting this standard have been positive. The SA8000 standard provides ongoing and reliable assurance that our suppliers are upholding social performance expectations, while also continuously improving their management systems to address and prevent social and labour risks. As a family business that upholds its leading reputation in this industry it simply not an option for us to deal with factories who are not compliant.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SUPPLIERS

Whenever choosing a new supplier, the prospective supplier should be made aware of our environmental policy and in addition each supplier is expected to address the following four issues:

1. Waste management - Waste should be minimised and items recycled where possible. Effective controls of waste in respect of ground, air and water pollution should be adopted. In the case of hazardous materials emergency response

plans should be in place.

2. Packaging and paper - Undue and unnecessary use of materials should be avoided and recycled materials used whenever possible.

3. Conservation - Processes and activities should be monitored and modified as necessary to ensure the conservation of scarce resources, including water, flora and fauna and productive land in certain situations.

4. Energy use - All production and delivery processes, including the use of heating, ventilation, lighting, IT systems and transportation, should be based on the need to maximise efficient energy use and to minimize harmful emissions.