1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023

Introduction

This statement has been written in accordance with the requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and shows the progress the Writtle group has made during the financial year. Published June 2024.

Organisation’s Structure and Supply Chains

Writtle is an international marketing services group.  The group directly employs over 700 people across 11 operating companies in the UK, USA and Hong Kong.

The majority of our supply chain is considered low risk. Our creative and implementation companies supply chains consist largely of software and hardware providers, professional services, insurance and benefit providers, office facilities and maintenance service providers.  Our manufacturing businesses also engage agency labour and source raw materials, principally related to the provision of point of purchase retail displays.

Our Policies on Slavery and Human Trafficking

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chain or in any part of our business and we make our position on this clear.  Our Anti-Slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.

Due Diligence Processes for Slavery and Human Trafficking

In order to identify and mitigate risk, we aim to:

• build long-standing relationships with trusted suppliers and make clear our expectation of business behaviour.
• have in place systems to encourage the reporting of concerns and the protection of whistle-blowers.
• continually review and carry out due diligence on our supply chain paying attention to higher risk suppliers, who use low skilled workers or trade in raw materials outside the UK and EEA.

Our Value and Ethics

We have core business values developed over time as our group has grown.  One of them is that we have a zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking.  We expect the same standards from all our contractors, suppliers and business partners and our supplier engagement and supplier due diligence procedures are designed to enforce this. Our standard supplier contracts require our suppliers to comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

Another core business value is to be responsible. That means we expect everyone working in our group companies, as well as everyone in our supply chain, to consider carefully about how they do business on our behalf. We want to contribute to a world where successful businesses care about more than profit. That’s why, in 2023, several of our group companies became B Corp Certified. By becoming B Corps, they have joined a global movement of companies that believe in using business as a force for good. At the time of publishing this statement, we are considering whether Writtle, as the parent company of the group, is suitable for B Corp certification.

Training

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, training was once again made available in June 2023 to relevant members of staff. In addition, we have looked at other ways of reinforcing our key messaging about modern slavery and human trafficking within our manufacturing businesses.

Effectiveness in Combating Slavery and Human Trafficking

We comply with all relevant UK laws and have internal policies in place to prevent slavery and human trafficking. We use the following key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how effective we have been to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains:

• Provide all relevant members of staff with appropriate training.
• Aim to sign all suppliers up to our standard terms and code of conduct, including confirmation of compliance, and continually review high risk suppliers.
• Use of labour monitoring and payroll systems.
• Act swiftly and appropriately if we become aware of any instances of actual of suspected slavery or human trafficking affecting our business.

Further Steps

We will periodically review the effectiveness of our processes and systems and any changes will be reflected in future annual statements.

Robert Essex

Chairman