Summary of our principal CR risks

 
 

ISSUE: PRODUCT SAFETY

RISKS

  • Reputational damage caused by food hygiene or safety incidents.
  • Non-compliance with regulatory requirements.
  • Safety concerns over materials used in packaging.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Continue to put food safety before economic considerations.
  • Maintain consistently high standards in raw materials and manufacturing.
  • Regularly review food safety systems to ensure efficiency and compliance.
  • Monitor new scientific research proactively.
 
 

ISSUE: HEALTH AND NUTRITION

RISKS

  • Health concerns over fat, salt and calorie content of foods.
  • Advertising to children.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Develop a diverse portfolio of foods.
  • Reduce fat, salt and calorie content where possible.
  • Provide Guideline Daily Amount nutritional information to consumers.
  • Market products responsibly, following accepted codes of practice.
 
 

ISSUE: WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY

RISKS

  • Potential for fatal accidents and serious injuries to employees and visitors.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Implement group health and safety policy.
  • Meet local regulations and require businesses to build a strong safety culture of sustained improvement.
  • Appoint accountable senior executives. Employ specialists, conduct audits and develop plans to ensure continual improvement.
  • Provide information, training and strong supervision.

 

 
 

ISSUE: EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

RISKS

  • Non-compliance with internationally recognised standards.
  • Reduced ability to recruit and retain high-calibre people at all levels to achieve business performance targets and maintain profitable growth.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • ILO conventions are taken account of and we strive to observe the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in management of all business units.
  • Sample audits across various businesses operating in regions of higher risk.
  • Recruit, train and reward staff throughout the group according to performance alone.
  • Whistleblowing policy
 
 

ISSUE: SUPPLY CHAIN RELIABILITY

RISKS

  • Poor conditions for workers and weakness in the supply chain causing brand damage.
  • Disruptions to raw material supplies and production caused by problems with suppliers, natural disasters and other incidents.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Assess risk and actively monitor suppliers through audits of labour standards.
  • Work in partnership with suppliers and NGOs to improve working conditions e.g. via training.
  • Review business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

 

 
 

ISSUE: ETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

RISKS

  • Reputational damage caused by bribery, corruption, unfair competition.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Group companies required to sign up to the group’s business principles and anti-bribery policy in which regular training will be given.

 

 
 

ISSUE: HIV/AIDS/MALARIA

RISKS

  • Loss of healthy workforce in high-risk countries.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Illovo has a strong HIV/Aids programme for its workforce and their families.
  • Provision of mosquito nets to help prevent malaria.
 
 

ISSUE: CLIMATE CHANGE

RISKS

  • Possible long-term increase in energy prices.
  • Physical threats to our operations from climate change e.g. flooding.
  • Altered weather patterns affecting crop productivity.
  • Costs involved in compliance with regulations.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Implement group environment policy.
  • Use best available techniques to minimise energy consumption – a statutory requirement for all sites subject to the EU’s pollution prevention and control regime.
  • Generate own electricity where possible, e.g. through combined heat and power plants, and maximise use of renewable fuel – bagasse (sugar cane fibre).
  • Grow/purchase crops from a wide range of geographical locations.
  • Disaster recovery plans in place.
 
 

ISSUE: AIR POLLUTION

RISKS

  • Unacceptable environmental impact and offence to local communities caused by emissions to air.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Assess any plant and process changes in advance before seeking authorisation. As a minimum, comply with standards in country of operation.
 
 

ISSUE: DISPOSAL OF WASTE AND WASTE WATER

RISKS

  • Legal sanction and reputational damage because of non-compliance with regulations and licences.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Assign responsibility to senior executives in all businesses and employ specialists. As a minimum, comply with standards in country of operation.
  • Reduce, reuse or recycle waste wherever practicable.
 
 

ISSUE: WATER AVAILABILITY

RISKS

  • Water shortages and increased cost of water.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Identify water-intensive sites in areas of water stress, and focus water reduction efforts in these areas.
 
 

ISSUE: RESOURCE EFFICIENCY

RISKS

  • Unnecessary business costs from inefficient use of natural resources.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Optimise use of raw materials.
  • Minimise packaging waste consistent with food safety and product protection.
  • Minimise fuel consumption in transport.
 
 

ISSUE: PALM OIL

RISKS

  • Reputational damage from unsustainable sourcing of palm oil.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Institute group policy to buy all palm oil from sustainable sources by 2015.
 
 

ISSUE: GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS

RISKS

  • Consumer concern over use of genetically modified food ingredients.

PLANNED OR ONGOING ACTIONS

  • Label all food containing genetically modified ingredients.
  • Monitor consumer trends by market.
 
 
Ethical Tea Partnership

Key to our success has been our highly decentralised approach, which allows each of our businesses to develop their own approaches to corporate responsibility.

See our principles in action

 

HSE Report Download

HSE Report 2011

Acting responsibly


CR Report download

CR Report Cover 2010

Measuring our success 2010

ABF COMPANIES

FAQ TOPICS

 
 

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