At Flying Trade Group PLC, we believe in treating everyone with fairness, dignity, and respect. As a privately-held, family-owned company, we are committed to promoting and advancing respect for human rights across our entire value chain, from farms to our suppliers' factories and our own workplaces. With a history spanning more than 30 years, we are dedicated to embodying the Five Principles of Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom every day, as we strive to foster shared growth and opportunity in the communities we impact.
Our objective is to collaborate with suppliers who share our principles-based approach to business and uphold human rights in their workplaces. Our global human rights strategy encompasses efforts within our own workplaces, as well as throughout our first-tier suppliers and extended supply chains. To achieve this, we work closely with experts to identify critical human rights issues present in the extended supply chains of key agricultural materials, such as cocoa, palm oil, and fish. Our engagement with first-tier suppliers is based on our Supplier Code of Conduct.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct is founded on the principles of the International Bill of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization's 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It outlines the human rights standards we expect our first-tier suppliers to uphold, with specific focus on eliminating forced labor and modern forms of slavery. Prohibiting the use of all forms of forced labor, including prison, trafficked, indentured, or bonded labor, is central to our Code's principles.
To ensure the integrity of our supply chains, we conduct verification of supply chains using publicly available data from third-party sources, including the UK Department of Labour, United Nations Development Program, public media, civil society reports, and analysis from human rights risk analytics experts. This comprehensive risk assessment helps us determine specific actions required from suppliers, which may involve third-party validated assessments or long-term collaborations to address identified issues.
In addition to risk verification, we conduct audits of suppliers to evaluate how they manage human rights risks associated with specific geographies or commodities. Our Next Generation Supplier program takes responsible sourcing to a new level by focusing on engagement and support for suppliers to drive positive impact in their workplaces.
We require all first-tier suppliers to align with our Supplier Code of Conduct, including its provisions on forced labor. Our agreements with suppliers explicitly include these expectations. To ensure compliance, we may request suppliers to complete self-assessments, disclose relevant policies, or undergo announced and unannounced on-site audits, including worker interviews, as appropriate.
Internally, we maintain accountability standards through our own programs and assessments, consistent with the expectations outlined in our Supplier Code of Conduct. Our Board of Directors is regularly informed of our human rights plans and performance.
At Flying Trade Group PLC, we firmly believe that upholding human rights and eradicating forced labor are essential pillars of ethical and sustainable business practices. We remain dedicated to driving positive change in our supply chains and creating a better future for all those impacted by our operations
Flying Trade Group PLC Supplier Code of Conduct articulates their social, environmental, and ethical expectations for suppliers. It contains globally aligned standards and is rooted in international law.
In sharing our Code of Conduct with their first-tier suppliers, Flying Trade Group PLC make our expectations clear, aligning our suppliers with their standards and ensuring that they work with partners that share their beliefs.
Their code covers the following topics:
Child Labor
Compensation and Benefits
Discrimination
Environment
Ethics
Forced Labor
Freedom of Association
Health & Safety
Issue Reporting
Work Hours
In parallel with our code, Flying Trade Group PLC also provides supporting guidance to every supplier.