OUR MISSION

Suppliers

Supplier Code of Conduct

The sourcing of our products and textiles is along with our people, the core of our business. So looking after the people who make our products is a top priority for us. Social Responsibility is a key focus in Barkers' strategic plan so we continually look to improve the way we operate across all areas of our business. We are committed to improving our workers' rights and believe supply chain transparency is vital. To ensure that the suppliers we work with are aligned with our values, we have established a rigorous Code of Conduct that all suppliers must sign and adhere to these practices.

PRINCIPLES
We have personally visited all of our factories, we visit China several times a year, ensuring all suppliers are seen at least once each year. 100% of our factories have signed our Code of Conduct and we continue to work with a small number of suppliers to build strong relationships. We do not use single-use suppliers as we believe it’s important to develop long-term relationships, ensuring good visibility and understanding of the workers' conditions and supplier compliance with our Code of Conduct. Our full Code of Conduct can be viewed below.

Our Code of Conduct binds our suppliers to both the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and the Conventions of the International Labour Organisation. This Code of Conduct ensures our suppliers have strict standards for human rights, fair wages and good working conditions. No forced, prison or child labour and no use of harmful chemicals and methods like AZO dyes.

In addition to all of our suppliers going through a rigorous selection process, our Buying Policies have been developed to ensure our own team work with our suppliers in the most collaborative way possible. Our policies ensure our buying schedule does not put unrealistic pressure on our suppliers and workers. Our supplier selection is based on those that have strong employee welfare and labour rights records. All of our supplier's workers' wages exceed the minimum government requirements and all workers are working on a voluntary basis. Our full Buying Policies can be viewed below.

All our factories hold current certified audits and 7 factories are Child Labour Free Accredited. Environmental responsibility is extremely important us and we work with suppliers who follow the best practice to minimise their environmental impacts. 70% of our factories are OEKO-TEX 100 or BLUESIGN certified for the use of non hazardous chemicals / green chemistry, and 100% of suppliers strictly adhere to waste water treatment standards as set by the local government.

Our Suppliers

To ensure we have absolute visibility across our supply chain, rather than using third party agents to source our product, we have 100% traceability and work directly with our factories. This way we can control the quality of the product, as well as select suppliers based on their attitudes and practises toward workers welfare and environmental responsibility.

For Barkers branded product we have a total of 18 Direct Suppliers.
Our Top 10 suppliers make up 83% of our total annual purchases.

Supplier Tenure

Suppliers By Category

In most instances, we prefer to work with a single supplier who is a specialist in their area, or in cases of large categories, we may use 2 suppliers. This limited supply base means we can better control the quality of production of our garments, as well as build strong, meaningful partnerships with fewer key suppliers.

Our aim is to be as transparent with our supply chain as possible, whilst at the same time, manage any commercial risks around sensitive information which may be detrimental to our business. Where we have exclusive supply arrangements with suppliers we are comfortable sharing this information publicly. For suppliers who are non-exclusive, we have disclosed all the same information but withheld their names. However, all supplier information is disclosed to our independent audit partner - Child Labor Free. We will also happily provide in confidence, to NGOs and other audit organisations if requested. Our supplier information can be viewed below.

Barkers doesn’t accept any subcontracting. All Barkers suppliers have agreed that the manufacturing is all undertaken at the factory inspected by Barkers and our Audit partner. The checks are performed personally by Barkers Supply Chain Manager who is in China 4 times per year to inspect Barkers production as it goes through the production line to ensure no sub-contracting

Audits

Our chosen Audit Partner is Child Labor Free, who undertakes independent Social Compliance Audits on our behalf. After initial Audit each factory is then re-audited every 2yrs, or at the expiration of current audit certificate. In addition, our suppliers often have several other audit certification standards from other international brands they work with. To avoid “audit fatigue” as well as additional audit costs for our suppliers, we will accept current valid results from other third-party audits. This is on the basis that the audit certifications are verified by us with the auditing party, and a full copy of the audit along with corrective action plans are provided for our records

INCIDENTS
100 incidents were reported in 2018.
All incidents were resolved within 60 days.
Of the incidents, 73% of these were minor with 0% critical.