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Crediton Dairy Limited – Modern Slavery (MS) Statement

Crediton Dairy is one of the UK’s leading dairy drinks businesses producing a comprehensive range of fresh flavoured and functional chilled milk drinks, iced coffee drinks and long-life milks & creams.  Located in the heart of Devon, we are dedicated to producing great tasting dairy products made from British milk supplied by our group of local, family-run, dairy farms.

We’re independently owned and professionally run, focused on adding value to everything we do.  To this end we constantly challenge ourselves:

  • to do better;
  • to listen to and meet the needs of our customers and consumers;
  • to value and build strong relationships with our people, partners and farmer suppliers;
  • to act responsibly, ethically and treat others as we would want to be treated.

Our great tasting milk drinks are for everyone from growing families to fitness fanatics.  Our products are consumed in homes, restaurants and on-the-go across the country. From retailer own-label to our fast-growing Arctic Iced Coffee and Moo Milk brands you’ll find Crediton Dairy products in over 13,500 food retail stores nationwide. We’re also a leading supplier of milks and creams across the foodservice and wholesale sectors. But we aren’t stopping there and we’re working on exciting new product innovations and formats to move the dairy drinks category forward.

All of this comes from our well invested dairy situated in the middle of Devon, a county which is of course synonymous with dairy farming and great tasting dairy products and at Crediton Dairy we’re incredibly proud to be continuing this tradition.

At Crediton Dairy, we believe in the importance of equality in the workplace. Being a responsible business is not only the right thing to do, but also good for the long-term viability of our business. We have an established employee code of conduct, the standards by which we operate. We expect these same high standards from our suppliers. We are committed to preventing acts of modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring within our business and the supply chain.

Our supplier code of conduct makes it clear that we expect the staff employed by our suppliers, whether permanent or temporary, to have the same basic right to be treated with respect and dignity at work as our own employees. We believe employment should be chosen. There must be no forced, bonded or involuntary labour. Supplier employees must not be required to lodge monies or identity papers in order to work and must be free to leave employment after the giving of reasonable notice.

We are publishing this statement to explain the work we have completed to date to combat modern slavery within our business and the steps we intend to take over the coming year.

Tim Smiddy

Managing Director

26th June 2024

 

Modern slavery is a global issue which can affect any business in any sector and which is often very difficult to detect. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible for any international organisation to guarantee that its business and supply chain is slavery free but Crediton Dairy recognises and takes very seriously the risk of modern slavery to our business and our people and we are committed to taking steps to reduce the risk of this abhorrent crime occurring within our business and supply chain.

Our Supply Chain

In the UK we work with a range of suppliers who provide goods and services across a number of different areas. We have close relationships with our suppliers and good visibility of our supply chain. Having performed a risk assessment of our UK supply chain we consider that there is a relatively low risk of labour exploitation or other forms of slavery and human trafficking occurring within it. Nevertheless, we are committed to preventing these practices from occurring within both our business and our supply chain, which is demonstrated by our policies and due diligence procedures as outlined below.

As part of our initiative to identify, monitor and reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring within our supply chain, we have undertaken the following due diligence procedures:

(a)  we confirm to our UK suppliers, our commitment to transparency and combatting modern slavery within our own organisation and our reciprocal expectation from suppliers of goods and services to us;

(b)  we have reserved the right with our UK suppliers to request access to their facilities for members of our HR Team to check compliance with the Crediton Dairy Supplier Code of Conduct. Such on-site audits would also help us to identify whether a supplier was engaged in unethical practices, which might include forced labour or other forms of modern slavery;

(c)  key members of the Procurement Team have received initial training on the issue of modern slavery.

If we were to find evidence that one of our suppliers has failed to comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 then we would require the relevant supplier to remedy such non-compliance without delay and we would consider terminating our relationship should we see no improvement in the way their business is conducted.

This approach is designed to:

  • identify and assess potential risk areas in our UK supply chain;
  • mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in the supply chain;
  • monitor potential risk areas in the supply chain; and
  • provide adequate protection to whistle blowers.

 Our Policy on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

 Our UK suppliers are requested to comply with our Employee Code of Conduct (which also applies to all Crediton Dairy employees) and with our Crediton Dairy Supplier Code of Conduct

These policies reflect our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in our business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in our business and UK supply chain.

Our Own Business

Crediton Dairy prohibits the use of all forms of forced labour and any form of human trafficking. We have a number of procedures in place in relation to our employees to proactively manage any risk, including robust recruitment processes in line with UK employment laws and a whistleblowing helpline which employees are encouraged to use to report any concerns.

As part of our own business when recruiting, we carry out our own established audited procedures to ensure that those employees:

  • have a right to work in the UK- this involves asking the individual direct to view their passport (a delay in providing the passport might indicate a modern slavery issue);
  • we check that permanent staff members have a personal bank account in their own name into which their remuneration is paid; and
  • where we are responsible for such temporary personnel whilst they are employed on our premises, they are free to leave on reasonable notice.

In addition, our employees, through the Employee Code of Conduct, are made aware of Crediton Dairy’s requirement for employees to support and uphold human rights principles and know that Crediton Dairy will not tolerate, engage in or support the use of, forced labour.

Risk and Compliance 

Crediton Dairy Ltd has evaluated the nature and extent of its exposure to the risk of modern slavery occurring in its UK supply chain through its internal auditing processes.  We do not consider that we operate in a particularly high-risk sector. This evaluation process will continue on an annual basis.

 Training and Performance Indicators

Given our view that Crediton Dairy’s exposure to modern slavery risk is limited, and the existing due diligence processes we already have in place as an organisation, we have not implemented any specific training of our employees or key performance indicators in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking during the financial year.

Further Steps

Following a review of the effectiveness of the steps taken to prevent modern slavery or human trafficking occurring in our business and UK supply chain, we intend to take the following further steps to combat slavery and human trafficking:

  • continue to monitor the risk to our UK supply chain on an ongoing basis;
  • implement specific training of all UK based employees to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and so they are aware of what to look out for in respect of modern slavery; and

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement.

Approved by the Board of Crediton Dairy Limited on 26th June 2024 and signed on its behalf by Tim Smiddy.