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  • Modern Slavery Statement

 

MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT

This statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that Designers Guild has taken and is continuing to take to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.

Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. Designers Guild has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to putting effective systems and controls in place to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or our supply chain.

Our Business

Designers Guild is a luxury home furnishing company that designs, distributes and markets furnishing fabrics, wallcoverings, upholstery and home accessories Worldwide. The company is based in London with design studios in Head Office as well as a distribution centre and retail premises. It also has offices and showrooms in over 60 countries and customer service centres in London, Munich, Paris and New York.

Product design and development is done inhouse and is produced by a range of manufacturers based in the UK and overseas.

Our Policies

We operate a number of internal policies to ensure that we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner. These include:

1. Anti-slavery policy. This policy sets out Designers Guild’s stance on modern slavery and explains how suppliers and employees can identify any instances of this and where they can go for help.

2. Code of business conduct. This code explains the manner in which we behave as an organisation and how we expect our employees and suppliers to act.

3. Recruitment policy. We operate a robust recruitment policy, including conducting eligibility to work in the UK checks for all employees to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.

4. A whistle blowing policy.

Our Partnerships

We pride ourselves on the honest, open and collaborative relationships we have with our suppliers. We source products from around the world but only deal with suppliers who have a similar ethical ethos to ourselves, often favouring larger mills that can support proper working conditions. We also subscribe to SEDEX, a global non-profit organisation for sharing responsible data on supply chains.

All new suppliers are subject to an assessment by ourselves before we commit to any transactions, including an online search to ensure that the particular company has never been convicted of offenses relating to modern slavery. Our Ethical policy forms part of our contract with suppliers and they are required to confirm that no part of their business operations contradicts this policy.

We often further follow up with site visits to strengthen our understanding and to allow us to accurately risk assess.

The Future

We are constantly reviewing our procedures to ensure that we continue to monitor both our own organisation and our supply chains to guarantee that our business follows the ethical policy that we as a company subscribe to.

Approval for this statement

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors, January 2018.

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