Modern Slavery Statement (2026)

 

Délifrance (UK) Ltd strives to be a socially responsible corporate citizen. Through our managers and through our people, we are committed to:

·        promoting protection of the environment

·        supporting charities and local communities

·        promoting equal opportunities

·        ensuring safe and efficient working practices

·        working with suppliers and customers who uphold similar values.

To achieve our goal we will continue to take steps to confirm that there is no Modern Slavery or human trafficking taking place within any element of our business.  This will include, but is not limited to, forced labour by such means as: physical/sexual violence; intimidation or threatening behaviour; withholding or diverting of wages; abusive working conditions; excessive or compulsory working hours or overtime; abuse of, or otherwise taking advantage of, vulnerable workers.

 

For the second year running, Délifrance Group were delighted to be awarded Committed Status by ECOVADIS in 2025. ECOVADIS are a globally recognized assessment platform that rates businesses' sustainability based on four key categories: environmental impact, labour, and human rights standards, ethics, and procurement practices. 

In 2024, Délifrance (UK) Ltd were awarded Great Place to Work status following the survey of our employees and the external benchmarking of our results against many other employers across the world. Great Place to Work status is a globally recognised and research-backed verification of great employee experience. Since then, we have been working to address the 3 lowest scoring areas and made great progress in our Action Plan. In the meantime, following our recent acquisition by the Vandemoortele Group in January 2026, the decision has been made to use a different Employee Engagement Survey format across the new combined business in October 2026. This will allow alignment of indicators and measures across the Group. We are looking forward to seeing our results in December.

 

In 2025-26, we took these actions on our Modern Slavery agenda at Delifrance:

·        Following the introduction of a new Sexual Harassment Policy, we ran ACAS-led Sexual Harassment training for all line managers and designed and delivered an in-house face-to face Sexual Harassment Training programme for all colleagues in 2025.

·       We have since ran a Sexual Harassment Survey for all colleagues and agency workers and carried out a Risk Assessment based on the results. The results were communicated to our Board Members, our Trade Union representatives and shared with all colleagues as part of our Town Hall Meetings. The UK and I Board Members were consulted on the content of the Risk Assessment along with members of the HR team and our Legal team. We are now working through the actions identified in our Risk Assessment.   

·      In 2024, we delivered training that was focussed on our Key Values: Acting Together, Working for the Long Term, Being Genuine and Being Entrepreneurial. We have since run further behaviour-based training for all colleagues based on Delifrance’s Leadership Principles. This training was delivered in house to all colleagues and set out how we can deliver our Values at work and made it clear that these Principles apply to all.

·       We revised our Whistleblowing Policy and restated what it means and how it should be used at our Town Hall Meetings for all colleagues.

·       We maintained the improvements we have seen in the amount of excessive hours working at both our Southall and Wigston sites through regular monitoring and control measures.

·     We broadened our Equal Opportunities Policy to include an “Equity Approach” that is tailored around the needs of individuals. This approach is summarised in our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy that was created in 2026 and communicated to all via our Town Hall Meetings.

·     We have continued to promote Diversity and Inclusion through the design and roll out of LGBTQIA+ training for all managers and employees and our Diversity and Inclusion Calendar of events that take place across the year.

·     We are continuing to support charities through the introduction of a Charity Match Funding Policy that means we match up to £1,000 per annum per employee of fund-raising. They must be registered charities and not have political or religious affiliations. 

·      As part of our commitment to the environment, managers and customer-facing teams have completed accredited Environmental Awareness training on-line and undergone assessments of their knowledge and understanding throughout the training. Our objective is to reduce the Company’s environmental impact through these key decision-makers.

·      Stronger Together training was completed by the HR Director for the UK and I and we used their Assessment Model to review our risk profile in February 2026. This is now being regularly reviewed to measure our progress. 

 

Throughout the period July 2026 to June 2027, we plan to undertake the following:

People

·     Continued compliance with our strict employment policies covering recruitment / bribery & corruption / health & safety / harassment and bullying.

·     Continue to ensure that all personnel employed directly by Delifrance (UK) Ltd are paid at an appropriate rate in line with the National Living Wage and overtime payments are in line with the ETI base code.

·     Continue to monitor working hours to ensure they are not excessive, and personnel are given rest days in accordance with the ETI base code. Incidents of excessive working are reviewed when identified.

·     Continue to source temporary employees from a GLA-approved agency and carry out regular audits of the agency to ensure that these employees are being paid at rates in line with the National Living Wage and have no unfair or unnecessary deductions.

·     Continue to be members of SEDEX and undertake regular third-party audits of ourselves, at appropriate frequencies, to ensure that we are complying with best ethical practices.

·     Continue to empower the voice of our workers through Engagement Surveys and Action Planning, Involvement Forums with Worker Representatives and Trade Union representatives, Town Hall Meetings for all colleagues and our Delifrance Newsletter. We will raise awareness of Modern Slavery through these media. We include agency workers in our Engagement Survey. The next Engagement Survey is planned for October 2026, results in November along with action-planning activity in December. In addition, there will be regular on-line Pulse Surveys.

·    Continue to recognise the higher level of vulnerability of agency workers and reduce our dependence on agency labour across both sites by increasing the number of permanent Production-based employees. Where possible, we are doing so by offering permanent contracts to agency workers.

·    Revise our Whistleblowing Policy to reflect our change of ownership and Online Provider and promote how to access this at all our sites.

·    Revise and reissue our Employee Handbook to include any new or updated Policies.

·    Re-run our Sexual Harassment Survey in 2027 to measure our progress in this area since we first ran it in 2025.

 

Training

·        Continue to brief all new personnel about Modern Slavery and human trafficking during their induction to the business and promote the various routes for confidential whistleblowing. This requirement is incorporated into periodic refresher training for all employees every 3 years.

·        Continue to communicate the Whistleblowing Contact Point via Delifrance News, Town Hall and Involvement Forum meetings as well as via Noticeboards and the Delifrance Intranet. It is also included in the Employee Handbook issued to all new and current employees.

·        All internal managers and supervisors have been trained in the signs of Modern Slavery / human trafficking and we have continued to develop our internal training plans to ensure awareness of Modern Slavery to all employees, enabling everyone to identify potential signs and react accordingly. This training is refreshed every 3 years.

 

Suppliers

·    Continue to engage with all suppliers to ensure that our total supply chain is actively targeting the identification and elimination of Modern Slavery and human trafficking.

·    In the past year, we have carried out a review of all UK suppliers to ensure their compliance with Modern Slavery regulations through SEDEX.  This is in progress for our non-UK suppliers. We are continuing to explore the SEDEX and ECOVADIS systems to identify ways that they can give us a deeper insight into any potential Modern Slavery / human trafficking risk within our supply chain and enable us to take appropriate steps to eliminate occurrence or risk of occurrence as necessary.

·    Where suppliers flag as potentially at risk from a Modern Slavery perspective, we work with them either directly or via a third-party auditor to improve this area. If they were unable to do this, we would look to source an alternative supplier. 

 

Niall Cogan

General Manager – Délifrance (UK) Ltd

 

July 2026