Modern Slavery Statement

Fair Trade

Modern Slavery Statement


Hotel Chocolat is committed to preventing acts of modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring within both its business and supply chain and imposes those same high standards on its suppliers.


Structure of Organisation

Hotel Chocolat is a UK based chocolate manufacturer and multi-channel retailer with outlets based within the UK and Denmark and an annual turnover of £100m+. We work with a range of suppliers and partners from Ingredients and Packaging manufacturers to IT and Marketing services.


Policies

As part of our commitment to combating modern slavery, we have implemented the following policies within our organisation:

  • Supplier set-up and sign-off
  • Vendor Rating
  • Technical/Quality auditing
  • Commercial review schedules


    • Due Diligence

    In our efforts to monitor and reduce the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring within our supply chains, we are developing a risk rated framework in conjunction with PwC to roll out across the business supported by our whistle blowing policy and discrete contact number.


    Risk and Compliance

    We will regularly evaluate the nature and extent of exposure to the risk of modern slavery occurring in the supply chain. We have a heightened consideration based on cocoa sourcing/supply chains:

  • We have identified the potential of risk within our House couverture cocoa supply in so much as we will develop direct sourcing relationships wherever possible with a clear ongoing audit process with farmers directly rather than our processing partnership supply chain audit points only.
  • We aim to strategically source our cocoa from Ghana’s Osuben region and will set clear milestones to achieve this in its entirety by FY19/20.
  • We ensure that all our suppliers adhere to our ethical sourcing policy and have revised the structure to ensure improved audit compliance.
  • We enforce a strict code of compliance and do not tolerate slavery and human trafficking within our supply chains. If we find evidence of a failure to comply with our policies we will immediately seek to terminate our relationship with the relevant supplier.


    • Effectiveness and KPIs

    We conduct independent reviews of our business and supply chains and take ongoing action to combat slavery and human trafficking.

    We will agree, set and review KPIs to assess how successful we have been in ensuring that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or supply chains with functional responsibility embedded within our Senior Management team and awareness embedded through our ELT (Emerging Leaders Team) and ongoing monthly business briefings.


    Training

    We invest in educating our team to recognise the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains. Through our induction and training programmes, employees are encouraged to identify and report any potential breaches of the organisations anti-slavery and human trafficking policy within the wider understanding of whistle-blowing. Employees are taught the benefits of stringent measures to tackle slavery and human trafficking as well as the consequences of failing to eradicate them from our business and supply chains:

  • Immersion programme
  • ELT sessions
  • Heads of Department development


    • This statement is made in accordance with Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes Hotel Chocolat’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year commencing 27th June 2016 and ending 2nd July 2017.


    Last revised 13 November 2017.