This statement is made on behalf of Polarn O. Pyret AB according to the UK Modern Slavery Act and it is the first Modern Slavery Statement issued by PO.P in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It applies to, and sets out the steps, PO.P has taken during the fiscal year of 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024 to address modern slavery within its supply chain and its own operations.
The full Statement can be found here.
Since 1976, we have been dedicated to creating high-quality clothes that can be loved, worn and handed down. We call this design that lasts. PO.P is a well-known Swedish brand for baby and childrenswear, with products that are designed, produced and distributed through online, proprietary and franchise stores. We are established on 10 markets and on 11 e-commerce platforms. Our own e-commerce accounts for more than half of the net sales in PO.P’s own operated channels. Our head office is located in Stockholm, Sweden. We have a production office in Hong Kong, as well as offices in the UK and Finland. PO.P brings together approximately 500 employees in 6 different countries.
PO.P doesn’t own any factories – instead we work in close partnerships with a carefully selected number of external suppliers worldwide to manufacture our garments. The products we sell under the PO.P brand are manufactured by 30 production units in 7 different countries. Reporting transparently on our supply chain practices and operations is core to our approach to sourcing. We publish our supplier list on our website and disclosing our Tier 1 supply chain. Our public supplier list is updated on six-monthly basis to reflect the current assortment.
For more information about Polarn O. Pyret and its organizational structure, supply chain risk management and due diligence see our Sustainability Report.
Any questions related to this report or the sustainability work carried out by PO.P can be directed to: sustainability@polarnopyret.se
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The activities within our value chain are affected by legislation and industry standards. In addition, we have policies that govern the decisions taken in all operations. All onboarding of new employees includes these policies, and the relevant policies are part of our supplier’s agreement.
SUPPLIER AGREEMENT
Our Master Purchase Agreement and its appendices sets out our minimum requirements and expectations for suppliers to uphold human rights, labor, environmental, ethical and legal requirements in their own operations and their supply chains.
CODE OF ETHICS
The Code of Ethics provides general guidance on how to handle various situations that may arise at our workplace. It applies to all activities carried out by, or on behalf of, PO.P, together with the statutory and regulatory provisions in force wherever we conduct our business. It applies to everyone working at the company, regardless of whether they are an employee, consultant or board member. The behaviour of each and every one of us defines PO.P and its reputation in the outside world.
CODE OF CONDUCT
The Amfori BSCI Code of Conduct involves a commitment to work systematically with risk assessment, knowledge dispersion, inspection and improvement work at suppliers and factories. All suppliers that work for PO.P must undertake to comply with the Code of Conduct as an integral part of their supplier agreement. The Amfori BSCI Code of Conduct is based on the most important international labour standards protecting workers’ rights. PO.P has participated in the Amfori BSCI initiative since 2005, in previous years through the RNB group, PO.P’s previous owners.
HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY
At PO.P, we recognise our responsibility to operate with respect to human rights. We are committed to ensuring that fundamental rights are respected, and that people are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status – in our own operations and in our supply chain. Through human rights due diligence processes, we are committed to identifying, preventing, and mitigating any human rights violations resulting from or caused by our business activities.
WHISTLE BLOWER FUNCTION
PO.P is committed to detect and prevent all kinds of irregularities that may seriously harm our business, employees or anyone involved in the production of our garments. We have therefore implemented a whistleblower function as a complement to our normal internal reporting routines to allow for an anonymous reporting channel of suspected irregularities such as breaches of human rights.
More details on our Whistleblowing policy can be found here.
PO.P has a global commitment to sustainability, and takes a global approach to social and environmental impacts. Our approach on due diligence is guided by the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct and the sector guide OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment & Footwear Sector. The six-part framework for Due Diligence established by OECD is the guiding the structure for the work at PO.P;
GOVERNANCE – We embed responsible business conduct through governance and policies.
INDENTIFY IMPACT – We identify and assess negative and positive impacts in operations, supply chain and business relationships through yearly risk assessment and supply chain mapping.
MITIGATION OF IMPACTS – We cease, prevent and/or mitigate actual or potential adverse impacts through regular risk assessment, auditing and improvement measures.
MONITOR & TRACK – We track implementation and results.
COMMUNICATION – We communicate how impacts are addressed through our sustainability report and other channels, such as website, social media and stakeholder engagement.
REMEDIATION – We enable remediation when appropriate, given our level of impact and influence.
We work proactively to identify, prevent, and minimise any negative impact our business activities may have on the environment as well as on human and labour rights in our production countries. Our due diligence process involves regular risk assessment of each production market, suppliers as well as our own operations, products and services, from a social, environmental and brand perspective. We use the ESG Risk Assessment tool provided by Amfori to identify risks on our production markets, we also consider national legislation and global political factors in our assessment as well as several guiding documents and tools from GRI, OECD, UN, WWF, Textile Exchange and more. The majority of the fibers used in our products are certified according to standards that also cover human rights issues in the supply chain.
There are new and emerging requirements on due diligence, for example as part of the European directive, and we are working to incorporate new approaches and requirements into our existing systems. PO.P has identified our salient risks in each focus area; People, Planet, Products as well as Other risks.
Working with traceability and visibility in the supply chain is key to our ability to identify any risks, measure, monitor and ensure improvements in the factories and manufacturing facilities with which we work. It is also important for us to be transparent towards our customers and all our stakeholders by giving them insight into our business activities along the supply chain. With the implementation of the software TrusTrace, we started the journey to collect data from the entire supply chain, with the aim of full traceability for each individual item we produce. Greater insight into the supply chain will enable us to identify and mitigate risks as well as work in a more hands-on way with improvements throughout the value chain.
During the year, we have been focusing on implementing and ensuring traceability of the key suppliers that account for 80% of our product range. For the majority of our key suppliers, we now have traceability down to Tier 3, yarn factories. As a part of our transparency commitment, we not only publish our Tier 1 Supplier list on our website, but also disclose the manufacturing production unit for each item on our e-com site. By doing this, our customers can get greater insight into where the product has been manufactured, the social audit status and if there are any environmental certifications.
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PO.P employees are continuously trained in our policies, including those related to human rights, and our company values. During 2023 we performed training in responsible purchasing practice for all employees in the assortment and production team.
Our suppliers get training through Amfori BSCI in all areas covered by the CoC, including forced labor and human rights.
This statement has been approved and signed by the Board of Directors of Odin Retail Limited, company number 05384555, and by the CEO of PO.P, Johan Munck on 1st of December 2023.