Sustainable Procurement

SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT POLICY - SOURCING WITH INTEGRITY

apetito is one of Europe's leading suppliers of quality frozen meals, food products and catering solutions. This policy sets out our approach to the sustainable procurement of goods and services across UK operations of the company as part of our integrated business sustainability programme.

Introduction

Decisions relating to the procurement of goods and services have a significant effect upon the resilience and profitability of our business and have wider social, environmental and economic impacts upon the communities we work in and on a global scale. We seek to develop our business in a sustainable pattern striving to address the needs of all stakeholders in the business and working toward the joint endeavour of furtherance of the success and resilience of the business.

To achieve these goals apetito will develop practice and systems to enable us to use purchasing decisions to:

• develop open, effective, resilient, long term partnerships and supply chains with suppliers
• promote goods and services that across their full life cycle manage and limit their impact upon society and the environment
• create positive and ethical economic impact

We believe the adoption of a progressive and sustainable approach to procurement has other benefits through the generation of innovative and creative solutions adding value and competitive advantage to the business.

Supply Chain Resilience

As a manufacturing business we are dependent upon the continuity and integrity of supply available to us.

We believe that resilience of supply of goods and services is achieved through strong partnerships with supplier organisations. apetito will form single and multi-supplier relationships developing from a basis of mutual respect and openness in conformity with our ethical, environmental and economic expectations to achieve fair commercial relationships with all parties in the supply chain. As relationships continue to develop suppliers will be expected to show that they manage their operations to a high standard to ensure continuity of supply of service and goods. We shall, as appropriate, undertake reviews of contingency management arrangements of suppliers and work closely with them to identify excessive risk and identify effective solutions.

Respect for the environment

apetito will further develop policies and procedures to ensure that our suppliers are influenced, encouraged and supported to adopt practices that will promote good environmental practice. These approaches will enable us to review the ethical and environmental performance of suppliers and share the findings to develop more effective and sustainable business partnerships. We will further strengthen the means particularly to support our business partners in their efforts to reduce energy use, achieve waste reduction and water use reduction as part of an environmental management system.

Ethical Procurement

We shall act with integrity and courtesy at all times and treat all trading transactions as an opportunity to build sustainable trading relationships for the business and our trading partners. We are committed to trading fairly with all our suppliers, and will increasingly communicate our responsible sourcing expectations to them. We shall aim to make purchasing decisions to achieve positive social and economic outcomes for communities in which we operate and the global community.

We will expect our business partners to strive to work in open partnership with apetito in all dealing and undertake their own sourcing and operations in a way that conforms to apetito's ethical, environmental and sustainability standards. We will also expect our trading partners to ensure that goods and services are produced in line with the minimum ethical standards. The base code of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) provides a description of minimum standards of fair dealing and ethics. Suppliers are expected to establish management systems to deliver ethical performance in line with this Code and maintain records demonstrating compliance. Suppliers will be expected to communicate ethical requirements to all employees, suppliers and any out-workers or sub-contractors engaged in their supply chain. Suppliers will be expected to take steps 10 ensure that their suppliers and sub-contractors comply with requirements of this Code. Suppliers are expected to comply with all applicable national laws in the countries in which they operate and all relevant ILO conventions. Where these standards differ, the standard that provides workers with greater protection will prevail.