Primark adds that it does acknowledge the inherent challenges in defining and calculating a living wage, but it believes that a negotiated approach remains the most practical and sustainable move and supports the development of all industrial strides taken to achieve this. What certainly has helped over the last two years is there has been more of an appetite to collaborate, says Katharine Stewart, Primarks Director of Ethical Trade & Environmental Sustainability. To maintain this strategy Primark always focuses on buying, logistics and supply chain management. Primark opened it first store in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2008. In September 2015, an ACT delegation, which consisted of IndustriALL and leading representatives from Primark, H&M and Inditex travelled to Cambodia to meet with suppliers, garment unions, the Labour Ministry and the Ministry of Commerce and the garment manufacturers association of Cambodia. In addition, Primark launched a wellbeing programme in its head office in Dublin in July 2015, which currently offers 20 classes a week in its own exercise studio. For example, the fashion retailer has committed to improving the durability of its clothes from 2025; they must be able to be washed at least 30 times without wear and tear. For example, Primark has a team of specialist auditors who conduct audits in all of its stores across 11 countries. Primark is not the first fashion high street retailer to initiate an in-store recycling scheme with I:CO, but one key difference between the Primark clothing recycling pilot and other fashion retailers textile recycling programmes is the customer incentive. In order to ensure garment workers can have easy access to their bank accounts, Geosansar bank kiosks are located close to factories and worker communities. Primark also increased the number of fun, team-based projects with employees to boost direct engagement, which led to over 100 employees taking part in the wellbeing summer challenge. Our reason for doing so is to control and retain the integrity of them. Usually suppliers contact an external party of their own choosing when conducting a factory audit. This has included, for example, details of our suppliers, their factories, as well as our supply chain practices, said a spokesperson for Primark. Credit: Primark. That is why we have begun to explore how we can better measure what we do so that we might provide more credible and tangible evidence of our impact.. The programme helps raise awareness on a wide range of topics, such as the importance of children's education, financial planning, general health and workers rights through the formation of worker education groups. We provide suppliers and their factories with formal training, tools and support to enable improvements to be made throughout the manufacturing process.. Nevertheless cotton, a natural fibre, makes up a large percentage of its apparel range, even though it remains a labour and resource intensive product. Last week, on January 17 2019, Primark announced its Q1 results to January 5. Nevertheless, Primark cannot argue with the fact that many consumers do shop excessively at Primark and are more likely to make an unnecessary, or unneeded purchase if the price is low enough. The value retailer has had a similar system in place in the UK for a number of years now, which ensures all recyclables are collected from its stores via its delivery trucks and transported back to the central distribution centre. Regarding Primark's China sourcing strategy, on the one hand, Primark sources from as many as 475 suppliers located in China, far more than any other Asian country. Primark is pursuing a living wage for workers in the supply chain and support with financial literacy training and access to social protection by 2030. We try to be proactive and helpful partners when it comes to audits, points out Stewart. Over in the UK and in the US, Primark sales assistants have also shared concerns feeling overworked and underpaid, having to deal with overbearing management teams, as well as difficulty in taking time off, on job boards Indeed and Glassdoor. On April 24, 2013 a building housing five garment factories which manufactured products for approximately 28 brands, collapsed in near Dhaka, Bangladesh, claiming the lives of 1,138 workers and injuring more than 2,000 individuals. Taking into consideration fast-fashions current business model, which is focused on high volume, low price and disposable products, this cannot by definition nor intention, go hand in hand with sustainability, she adds. Many workers take pride in the work they do and the clothing they make and do not deserve to be exploited as they are now. Primark has been grappling with the best way to tackle this assumption over the past few years. As a business we care about the impact. A link to the sourcing map is available here. And in Portugal, the retailer is considered a fashion expert. New Coalition Hailing Blockchain as Linchpin of Successful Climate Action, Global Citizen, Authentic Team Up to Rally Consumers to Help #EndExtremePovertyNOW, Rise in Balance Sheet Activism Swells CNotes Community Investment Platform to $300M, Addressing Fashions Footprint at Farm Level Through Verified Sustainability Data, Most Businesses Dont Understand Scope 3 Emissions Heres Why. Work is in the early stages, notes Stewart, so it has yet to be seen what, if any achievable impact, the initiative has on the wages of garment workers. Primark. But Primarks ethical and sustainable initiatives go much further than Rana Plaza. As a leading member of ETI, Primarks Code of Conduct is founded on the ETI Base Code which stresses that wages and benefits paid for a standard working week meet, at a minimum, national legal standards or industry benchmarks, whichever is higher. The one in the UK, which covers all our European stores, is Newlife 8, a foundation which supports children who are either terminally ill or very physical disabled, explains Stewart. However, Primarks sustainable cotton programme is not its only initiative in place aimed at empowering and educating its female garment workers. Some factories need help improving certain areas, so we make sure we work together with them by explaining the implications and solutions on the audit checklist. Primark also runs an online supplier management system which offers training programmes on how suppliers can improve their working standards. So even though Primark may have a number of initiatives in place aimed at improving employee wellbeing, it seems as if the effects of these programmes are not as beneficial or effective for all its workers - in particular its store employees. A key part of the programme focuses on sharing lessons Primark and DFID learnt following the Rana Plaza incident, including the retailers initiatives with local partners to provide both long-term and short-term aid. The strategic plan of Primark consisted of the strategy of growing inorganically as well as organically. Photo: Workers sewing in Indian Garment Factory. Unfortunately, Primark does not enclose their supplier list which makes it really hard to verify if what they communicate about their supply chain is actually true, continues Scally. The partnership, which sees Primark and Geosansar also provide financial education, as well as access to banking, has helped over 400 workers. We will continue to look at what we feel might be useful or interesting as we continue to develop our program.. But the value fashion retailer has yet to explore alternative solutions or set itself fixed goals in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. What we see on the social side, is that everyone has very similar Codes of Conduct, but various degrees of implementation - which makes it harder for everyone.. Hover your mouse over the photos to learn more. Sustainable Brands We actively engage with our suppliers, chemical experts, other retailers and organisations to help bring about sustainable change, states Primark in its Corporate Responsibility Report 2016. These complaints from the UK have come even after Primark implemented the national living wage 4, which aims to ensure its workers are paid enough to live off of. Milan, Italy Primark store photo. As Primark does not directly own any of the factories or suppliers it works with, an overall lack of transparency concerning their audit reports can make it hard to ensure their core working principles are constantly being maintained. During the first year a factory has to demonstrate that it . Because if there is no support on the systematic implementation of such initiatives, then it makes all the more challenging for suppliers, says Stewart. For us sustainability is just about doing it across the board, notes Stewart. The incident came just months after it emerged that Primark clothes were being made in India by factories using child labour. In France, employees also complained of difficult working conditions in Primark, with complaints ranging from unpaid sick leave, to constant monitoring, to unexplainable gaps between sales assistants' wages 5. One of our long-term goals is to source all of our cotton more sustainably, says Stewart. However, this boost in income also brought on a new set of concerns for the female cotton farmers who participate in the pilot, as they were not used to managing a large cash flow. Photo: Leipzig - Germany. Twelve factories have already benefited from the programme to date, and an additional seven are currently benefitting from the PaCT training through Primarks nominations. Primark does agree that it could be sharing more information on its sustainable and ethical practices with the public, even if consumers are not always asking for it. Primark sets out 'ambitious' sustainability strategy Manage Cookie Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Use of chemical fertilisers were reduced by 40 percent. Primarks buying and merchandising teams in Dublin (Republic of Ireland) and Reading (UK) travel internationally to source and buy fashion items that best reflect each seasons key fashion trends. Primark Current business strategies Primark is the most growing retail company in UK. I believe it is more important to show, as transparently as possible, proof of the good we have already done, than to set a target of what we may do in the future, However, others disagree and argue transparency, as well as setting targets, are still not enough to make a real difference. This website uses cookies for analytics, advertising and to improve our site. It's basically a strategy used to overview your whole supply chain. Right from the start, when the buyers are developing the product, we ensure we have the quality team looking at the design of product. Credit: Primark, Video: Primark HERproject. As Primark has also expanded into new regions over the last few years, the retailer has ensured that all its new locations are supported by safety specialists who help uphold its safety standards. There were a number of brands before who did not want to collaborate. It's really interesting and been very helpful for when we have been giving school talks or teaching at colleges, adds Stewart. Primark tries to cut down all unessential expenses, reduce wastage, less direct marketing option, so that it can maintain the cost of the product. Primark offers customers quality, up-to-the-minute fashion at value-for-money prices. Primarks Code is much in line with Fair Wear Foundation Code of Labour Practices, points out Lotte Schuurman, Communications Officer at the Fair Wear Foundation 5 (FWF). In a factory setting, where the management team usually male dominated, female workers can be pressured to work overtime without pay to reach production targets, or denied the right to maternity or sick leave. Implemented by Dhakas BRAC Universitys Center for Entrepreneurship Development in collaboration with BRAC USA, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and C&A Foundation, the Digital RMG Factory Mapping in Bangladesh (DRFM-B) project is the first of its kind to attempt to digitally map the entire garment industry in Bangladesh and marks a critical industry shift toward more transparency. Brands should take wages out of the competition and start working together on payment of a living wage, stresses Tara Scally, Dutch Campaign Coordinator Clean Clothes Campaign 11. These teams based in its nine key sourcing locations, such as China, India, Bangladesh and Turkey, act as the retailer's "eyes and ears on the ground," according to Katharine Stewart, Primarks Director of Ethical Trade & Environmental Sustainability. The value fashion retailers parent company, Associated British Foods, acknowledges it faces pressure to set itself fixed goals in terms of responsible and sustainable production, but stresses transparency is key to making a real difference. Until there is a general understanding that we all need to slow down and redress this industry, all initiatives, however welcome, however innovative, are just covering the problem, not solving it. If you think about the cotton project for example, we only started communicating that last year, when we have been working on it for three years. Input costs were reduced by 19.2 percent on average. For example, Primark is working on improving its injury rate as part of its wider scheme to boost its safety performance, according to its Corporate Responsibility Report 2016. 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