Allied Milling and Baking Modern Slavery Act 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 Milling and Baking mills grain from the UK and overseas at 3 UK mills from which it produces bread and bakery products in 8 bakeries across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland; baked goods are distributed to customers across the UK via our own logistics network, which comprises 6 depots and 4 third party run depots. We employ around 3,300 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 an HR policy on Preventing Hidden Labour Exploitation and have started, and will continue, to provide key HR, manufacturing and supply chain management personnel with training on slavery and human trafficking. We continue to raise awareness throughout the business adopting the Stronger Together programme across our sites through induction, poster campaigns, team briefings and an e-learning training module on Modern Slavery Awareness for all our staff.
Allied Milling & Baking has set up a robust process for reporting slavery and human trafficking through our confidential whistleblowing hotline which is an established 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 are working 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 Terms and Conditions and Technical Supplier Code (reviewed annually); these documents are given to all new suppliers, who are required to confirm their adherence as a precondition for supply. Registration and completion of the SEDEX Questionnaire is a requirement.
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; packaging and food chemicals are manufactured 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 1st tier suppliers, and then where possible visiting 2nd and 3rd tier suppliers to confirm the validity of the supply chain map generated.
Key raw materials for Allied Milling & Baking have been identified as grain, flour, yeast, dried fruits, seeds and packaging. Allied Milling & Baking has a process of continuous update of our supply chain knowledge driven by supplier risk profile and validation activities. The key gaps identified typically relate to a lack of transparency of out-sourced labour supply practices in some down-stream supplier sites. Over the past two years our business has been working in partnership with other food producers and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) in Turkey (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.
Robin Lee, Managing Director – Allied Millls
November 2020
Allied Milling and Baking mills grain from the UK and overseas at 3 UK mills from which it produces bread and bakery products in 8 bakeries across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland; baked goods are distributed to customers across the UK via our own logistics network, which comprises 7 depots and 5 third party run depots. We employ around 4,000 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.