We do not own any factories, instead we work with independent suppliers. In recent years, we have heavily consolidated our supply chain and today we work in long-term partnerships with a few carefully selected suppliers.
Consolidating our supply chain has been key in increasing the progress in our supply chain. Working in close and long-term collaborations with our suppliers enables us to commit to one another in terms of support, investment and long-term improvement projects.
Before we start working with a new supplier or factory we do an evaluation to make sure that the supplier will be compliant with our policies and requirements. All factories are audited before they receive their first Lindex order, where we inspect and verify whether the supplier fulfils our requirements.
All our suppliers are required to follow a code of conduct that sets the requirements for working conditions such as wages, workplace safety, working hours and more. We audit the factories on a regular basis, with both internal audits performed by our production offices as well as third party audits performed by independent auditors. The audits are performed both announced and unannounced.
Read more about the Lindex Code of ConductFactory audits have previously been a corner stone in our compliance work in the supply chain. In recent years however, we have started to doubt the effectiveness of audits as they do not show enough improvement over time or drive change the way we want. We believe this is because the audit approach does not support our suppliers in developing their own ability of identifying issues, locating the cause and taking action to make improvements. Parallel with audits, we are therefore developing self-assessment where we train the suppliers to assess themselves and report to us. With self-assessment, we aim to move the responsibility and ownership to the supplier and develop their skills to improve conditions without constant external pressure.
To accelerate the development of sustainability in production, it is important to connect it with commercial interests. To enhance the business incentives for our suppliers and monitor their development, we have a sustainability score card where we score our suppliers on their performance within social and environmental sustainability as well as level of transparency. The sustainability score is part of our business score card which is our supplier management tool. This makes sustainability part of our decision on which suppliers to place order with.
Meet Paramount, one of our long-term suppliers in India. With a workforce of more than 7.000 employees, and where women are the minority, Paramount has made social sustainability and women’s empowerment a core part of its business values and an important part of its business decisions and day-to-day operations.