ALLIED MILLING & BAKING MODERN SLAVERY STATEMENT
Allied Milling & Baking acknowledges the provisions of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and commits to complying with its obligations to ensure transparency within its business and its suppliers of goods and services.
About the Group
Allied Mills uses grain from the UK and overseas at their three UK mills and Allied Bakeries bakes a range of bakery products at seven bakeries across Great Britain and Northern Ireland; baked goods are distributed to customers across the UK and Ireland via our own logistics network, which comprises seven bakeries and four third party depots. We employ around 3,400 people directly and also use regular agency labour within the business.
Allied Milling & Baking has appointed a multidisciplinary team chaired by a board member to oversee compliance to MSA and the Associated British Foods (ABF) Code of Conduct within our own sites and supply chain.
Within our Business
Allied Milling & Baking has a Preventing Hidden Labour Exploitation policy and provides key HR, manufacturing and supply chain management personnel with training on modern slavery and human trafficking. We use the Stronger Together programme across our sites to raise awareness through induction, poster campaigns, team briefings and an e-learning training module on modern slavery awareness for all our staff.
Allied Milling & Baking has a robust process for reporting modern slavery and human trafficking in our independent confidential whistleblowing service which is an established, independent, and trusted channel for employees to report issues in our business.
We acknowledge that one of our key risk areas is the use of temporary labour within our supply chain and we work with our providers so that they understand our expectations of them in taking the required proactive steps to tackling hidden labour exploitation. We actively audit the agencies who supply us with temporary labour against legislative compliance, including compliance with the Modern Slavery Act and conduct agency worker interviews as part of our audit process.
Within our Supply Chain
We consider that the greatest risk of slavery and human trafficking is in our procurement supply chain. Allied Milling & Baking works with its sister companies in the ABF Grocery division to monitor ethical practices within the supply chain.
Allied Milling & Baking has a long history of assessing suppliers, primarily by audit, for food safety purposes and its key staff have been trained to the SA 8000 standard to enable them to identify ethical challenges.
Our corporate expectations are defined in ABF's Code of Conduct, which is included in both our Terms and Conditions and the Supplier Code of Practice which are reviewed annually. These documents are given to all new suppliers, who are required to confirm their acceptance of them as a precondition for supply. We also require all suppliers to be registered with SEDEX and SAQ completion rates, SMETA audit non-conformances and lapsed suppliers are reviewed on a monthly basis.
Allied Milling & Baking's key product ranges are flour, bread products and morning goods, inclusions are typically limited to dried fruits and seeds. Materials from plant origin are typically grown, harvested and processed on a highly automated industrial scale and packaging and functional ingredients are made in plants with a high degree of automation. As a result, within these supply chains the need for unskilled or high volumes of labour is low.
Allied Milling & Baking has processes in place to map supply chains. Supply chain mapping of key materials is undertaken in conjunction with first tier suppliers, and where possible we visit second and third tier suppliers to confirm the validity of the supply chain maps generated.
Key raw materials for Allied Milling & Baking have been identified as grain, flour, yeast, dried fruits, seeds and packaging. At Allied Milling & Baking we continually update our supply chain knowledge based on supplier risk profiles and validation activities. The key gaps identified typically relate to a lack of transparency of outsourced labour supply practices in some down-stream supplier sites. Our business continues to work in partnership with other food producers and the Fair Labour Association in Turkey - including through the Harvesting The Future project - to monitor labour practices on farms that supply dried fruits.
To date Allied Milling & Baking teams have not directly identified any infringement of civil liberties within supplier processing facilities but do routinely flag minor health, safety and environmental issues and work proactively with suppliers to remediate these issues.
This statement will be reviewed each financial year and published on our website. Click here to read ABF’s full Modern Slavery Statement.
Chris Craig, MD, Allied Bakeries
September 2022