Responsibility Report 2019 OVERVIEW | PEOPLE | SOCIETY AND SUPPLY CHAINS | ENVIRONMENT | ASSURANCE STATEMENT Responsibility Report 2019 1 Welcome to our 2019 Responsibility Report At Associated British Foods, our 1 Overview 22 Supporting society and purpose is to make millions of 2 Our positive contribution strengthening our supply chains people’s lives better through the 3 CEO statement 23 Introduction 5 Who we are 24 Respecting human rights and labour rights provision of safe, nutritious food 6 What’s important to us 29 Promoting health and wellness and affordable clothing. In this 7 Our approach to responsibility 32 Supporting local economies report, you can find out how our 8 Supporting the UN Sustainable 37 Respecting the environment activities over the last year have Development Goals 38 Introduction supported our people and suppliers, 9 Investing in our people 39 Addressing the challenge of climate change contributed to the communities in 10 Introduction 44 Using natural resources responsibly which we operate and helped to 11 Looking after our people and keeping 49 Stewarding biodiversity them safe improve the world in which we 52 Improving animal health and welfare 16 Creating a diverse and inclusive live. We also demonstrate how workforce 53 Assurance statement everything we do is guided by 19 Developing and engaging our employees our core values. Additional online information Please visit our website at www.abf.co.uk/responsibility for: Our previous corporate responsibility reports and updates Our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2019 Our 2019 ESG Appendix OVERVIEW | PEOPLE | SOCIETY AND SUPPLY CHAINS | ENVIRONMENT | ASSURANCE STATEMENT Responsibility Report 2019 2 Our positive contribution Our businesses have always been driven by the aim to make a lasting, positive contribution to society. Our values help us to articulate the long-term benefits we can deliver for our people, suppliers, neighbours, customers and the environment. How we make a difference Investing in our people Supporting society and strengthening Respecting the environment We prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our our supply chain We are working hard to reduce our carbon footprint, employees, contractors and others we work with, and We respect the rights of people within and beyond use energy, water and natural resources efficiently, aim to cultivate diverse and inclusive workplaces where our operations, develop products that help to secure ingredients for our businesses responsibly and everyone is respected, supported and empowered to support healthy lifestyles and aim to strengthen the promote biodiversity. fulfil their potential. communities where our suppliers live and work. 138,097 £29m 10,864 28,000+ 52% 25% people employed invested in safety hours of supplier farmers enrolled in of the energy we used increase in British Sugar’s risk management training delivered Primark’s Sustainable came from renewables sugar beet yield over the Cotton Programme last decade 52% 1,980,009 2,519,077 350,000+ 80% 169 m3 of our total workforce hours of employee meals provided through people impacted by of the waste we of water reused by and 36% of our training delivered surplus food donations to Twinings’ Sourced with generated was sent for our operations senior management food banks Care programmes recycling, recovery or are women other beneficial use For more information on our 2019 performance, and for the definitions these figures are based on, see our ESG Appendix OVERVIEW | PEOPLE | SOCIETY AND SUPPLY CHAINS | ENVIRONMENT | ASSURANCE STATEMENT Responsibility Report 2019 3 CEO statement “ Significant political, economic and social changes have been taking place in many of our key markets so, as a company, we have also had to evolve. However, the core foundations of who we are remain unchanged and will continue to be the reasons for our success for the foreseeable future.” George Weston Chief Executive Who ‘we’ are We are a big company and what we do We are a company engaged in the most matters. Every day, Associated British Foods necessary of business activities: providing businesses manufacture and provide safe food people with access to good-quality, affordable and affordable clothing to people in dozens food and clothing. In doing this well, we make of countries. This is our greatest contribution our greatest contribution to the world. to wider society. Since 2017, I have been a member of the British Government’s Business We believe as strongly as ever that our leaders Against Slavery Forum, working with the in individual businesses and markets should Government to tackle the appalling problem be empowered to make the right decisions for that is modern slavery. However, our greatest their customers and their market. positive impact will not come through what I do, but through the everyday operation of our We expect our businesses to do the right businesses around the world. thing, and hold our leaders to account for ensuring their business operates according to Why now is the time to articulate the standards we expect. In this report, for the our values first time we set out the values that capture As people search for certainty and clarity the spirit in which we do business every day. from business, we have decided this is the moment to codify our company-wide values. We trust our colleagues and believe in turn that These are not new values recently discovered; the trust we foster within our business spills rather they are the underlying threads that run over into the relationships we develop with through every interaction at Associated British customers, suppliers and the communities in Foods. Articulating our four core values, as we which we work. are doing this year, provides common clarity We encourage our businesses to think and act and guidance for colleagues, customers and for the long term, seeing beyond the current suppliers and enforces our purpose. short-term turbulence in some markets. For more on our 2019 performance see our ESG Appendix OVERVIEW | PEOPLE | SOCIETY AND SUPPLY CHAINS | ENVIRONMENT | ASSURANCE STATEMENT Responsibility Report 2019 4 What do the values mean? Progressing through collaboration safe. Our Sugar business committed to take How these values are lived out Acting with integrity Our business model encourages individual seriously indigenous land rights, and it does. in the business Acting with integrity means that the trust that businesses to collaborate on common topics Our UK Grocery business has said it will source Values have no force unless they are lived out others place in us is honoured, resulting in of interest. This is as true for corporate cage-free eggs by 2025, and it will. Twinings through repeated action. As a company that consistent and fair ways of doing business. responsibility as it is for any operational has set a goal of improving the lives of half a clothes and feeds people, we know that to What starts in the boardroom flows out into priority. For example, our Primark ethical trade million people by 2020, and it will. These are do it well requires integrity and rigour as we the business, through our farms and factories, team has provided a centre of excellence just some examples of the value of pursuing consistently strive to deliver quality and value. and into our supply chains. Whether our on sourcing responsibly, benefiting those our objectives with rigour. Our values are on display every day across our customers buy a loaf of Kingsmill bread or a in their supply chain and other Associated Our purpose business and should be as evident to a supplier speciality animal feed product from AB Agri, British Foods businesses through sharing Our scale and heritage mean that those outside as to a customer. As we navigate the future they know they can trust the quality of our experiences. We take the same approach our business, from customers to investors, want together, our values will help keep us on the products. Similarly, when Primark places an when we collaborate with external partners, us to show leadership on a range of topics, such right path. order, the supplier knows we will pay on time, such as Unicef, Save the Children and as respecting human rights and protecting the providing them with the certainty that allows The Wildlife Trusts, to leverage our global environment. We have always expected high You can read this report as an exposition of them to invest in their business. expertise for local good. Through collaboration, standards in the way we operate, and those of our company’s values in action, but inevitably we’re also ensuring safer, fairer working us in leadership have expected everyone in the a summary such as this cannot capture all Respecting everyone’s dignity environments and promoting thriving business to fulfil their ethical responsibilities. the many acts of decency, kindness and Whether it’s our direct employees, our communities in resilient environments. For our part we leaders try to live up to the neighbourliness that take place in our business suppliers, our partners or our customers, expectations of the thousands of people in our every day. I want to thank and pay tribute to we treat people with dignity. We operate in Pursuing with rigour businesses, that we behave ethically as well. those colleagues who bring to life our values, a number of markets and sectors where we When we say we will do something, we do and who in bringing their own values to work are able to make a significant difference to it. Pursuing with rigour is a hallmark of the Our central role in the company is to provide help teach us what our values should be. success of our business. A further feature the lives of the people on whom we rely, be a framework in which our businesses have of our business is the professionalism our they sugar-growing communities in southern the freedom to pursue opportunities with colleagues show in their roles.