• Fair trade

Fair trade

Waitrose has established a set of ‘responsible sourcing principles’, outlining its expectations of its suppliers on issues such as labour standards, environmental management and animal welfare. This brief paper examines the following questions:

• why has Waitrose’s approach been successful?
• what have been the benefits for Waitrose?
• how did Waitrose’s business approach support its success?

Key learning points are:

• codes of conduct, in isolation, can have limited success; Waitrose has shown that effective communication of their responsible sourcing principles has helped them to better manage ‘grey issues’ in the supply chain
• ‘top down’ management of the supply chain can be more effective when complemented by a ‘bottom-up’ approach, as shown by the success of the Waitrose Foundation
• collaboration with sector peers can considerably reduce the audit burden on the supply chain and reduce time and resources for both the supplier and the client company.

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