Blutsgeschwister has shown advanced results on performance indicators. The company monitors 99% of its supply chain through FWF audits, meeting the threshold for members beyond the third year of membership. Blutsgeschwister fulfilled all monitoring requirements, including those for tail-end production locations. Together with a benchmarking score of 78 points, it remains in the ‘Leader’ category.

Blutsgeschwister´s sourcing strategy is to work with a consolidated supply chain and long-term partners, which allows the company to make progress in improving working conditions. Since becoming a FWF member, Blutsgeschwister has implemented significant and systemic changes to its design process and production planning, with the goal of supporting reasonable working hours. Blutsgeschwister continues to visit the majority of its suppliers each year, including the locations sourced via agents.

Blutsgeschwister is addressing systematic issues found in previous audits. The brand has created new contract templates with minimum wage requirements for all present and future business relationships with production locations. Blutsgeschwister continues to collect open costing information through two facilities (China, India), which helps Blutsgeschwister formulate a plan for how to ensure better wages are paid in the factories it uses. Blutsgeschwister has demonstrated great dedication to and knowledge on gender-based issues, not only by addressing them in its own supply chain, but also by creating awareness of these issues during several events and workshops organized by FWF.

Although the brand’s overarching performance showed advanced progress, the work on living wages needs to be accelerated in the coming year. The work done on this topic has already revealed areas for improvements at the production locations. This is a good start towards finding a cost-effective method for the payment of living wages

Download

Katharine Hamnett London, the brand, has shown progress by meeting most of FWF’s performance requirements and has monitored 68% in its first year of membership. The brand has also gone above and beyond basic requirements by auditing 36% of its supply chain in FWF low-risk countries. Katharine Hamnett London has a consolidated supplier base and works with a small number of suppliers, with which it has built and maintained strong personal relationships. This allows the member to work effectively on improving working conditions. This, in combination with a score of 59 points, means that Katharine Hamnett London is awarded the ‘Good’ category.

In the first year of membership, Katharine Hamnett London has implemented significant changes to its due diligence process to support responsible sourcing practices through the use of its supplier database to organise and collate information.

Katharine Hamnett London has strong forecasting and production planning systems in place. Due to the nature of its business, orders must be placed well in advance after samples for the collection have been created. As a result, this allows Katharine Hamnett London’s suppliers to be flexible in their production planning, so much so that some suppliers have even requested receiving orders later in the season and this has not been an issue to accommodate

Download

Albiro has shown progress and met most of FWF’s performance requirements. With a monitoring percentage of 99%, it meets the monitoring threshold required by members after three years of membership. With a benchmarking score of 67 points, Albiro is therefore is awarded the ‘Good’ category.

After a transitional phase in 2017/2018 within Albiro’s sustainability team (who are responsible for the implementation of the FWF Code of Labour Practices), the team has shown advanced knowledge and understanding of the CoLP and has been able to show this in practice. Monitoring efforts, following up on audits and complaints have been better structured and the team was able to show that it has a firmer grip on what happens in their production locations.

Albiro has also progressed its sourcing strategy to limit its number of Group 2 suppliers, which represent most of the tail-end in Albiro’s supply chain. In 2018, it ceased relationships with six group 2 suppliers. Albiro has an agreement with its agents, which provides the brand with greater insight into factories being used for its orders.

In 2018, Albiro continued to engage and discuss living wages in its production locations. In 2018, no concrete action was taken to implement higher wages in new production locations. FWF encourages Albiro to continue its work on living wages and social dialogue at its Group 1 suppliers. For example, by setting target wages and starting to contribute to wage increases at production locations.

FWF recommends that Albiro starts working more closely with Group 2 suppliers to prevent the occurrence of excessive overtime. Although its intermediaries are more aware of the FWF CoLP, issues around excessive overtime still exist in these production locations.

Download

workfashion has shown advanced results on FWF performance indicators. With a monitoring percentage of 97% and a benchmarking score of 75, the brand remains in the ‘Leader’ category.
In 2018, 92% of workfashion’s production volume came from factories where the company buys at least 10% of production capacity, and 66% of its total FOB came from the suppliers with which it has had a business relationship for at least five years. Both figures indicate a positive increase in consolidating and managing transparency in its supply chain base. workfashion works closely together with its partners (suppliers) in planning the production and has collected information about the total production capacity of its factories.

The company’s due diligence and monitoring processes are strongly embedded with the CEO and Sustainability Coordinator. In the past year, workfashion has been working on reducing the excessive overtime, payment of minimum wages and has shown improvements in following up on corrective actions, especially in North Macedonia and Turkey. One of the company’s biggest challenges is working with its suppliers towards paying living wages in North Macedonia. workfashion conducted cost of living research to understand the differences between workers’ financial needs in North Macedonia and Switzerland. In doing so, the company is trying to find a relevant benchmark for North Macedonia. Together with increasing factories’ efficiency and product quality, the company is looking for a strategy to move towards the payment of living wage.

FWF recommends that workfashion continues its work on living wages and scale-up raising the wage levels outside its pilot projects. Furthermore, FWF recommends that workfashion set up the target wage for its production facilities in consultation with workers representatives.

Download

Star Sock has shown progress and met most of FWFs’ performance requirements. In its fourth year of membership, a monitoring percentage of 99% and a benchmark score of 66 mean that Star Sock has achieved ‘Good’ status.

Star Sock works with a limited number of long term partners, all of which were visited several times during the past financial year. This partnership approach is also reflected in Star Sock’s production planning, which allows for reasonable working hours despite challenges inherent to the business model. Excessive overtime nevertheless remains a significant challenge, particularly at its Chinese production locations. FWF recommends that Star Sock agrees on achievable steps with factories to gradually reduce working hours and cooperate with other customers to this end.

While Star Sock has detailed insights into cost calculations and wage levels at most suppliers, no agreements to raise wage levels have been set. Star Sock should analyse what is needed to increase wages, set a target wage and develop a strategy to finance the costs of wage increases. Star Sock has a robust system for human rights due diligence in place, including risk assessment, monitoring and remediation. Subcontractors, however, are not fully included in this system. At the end of each financial year, Star Sock must confirm its list of production locations to FWF and provide relevant financial data. All production locations must sign the FWF questionnaire before production takes place and should be included in Star Sock’s monitoring.

Especially considering the limited size of Star Sock’s team, the company has a thorough understanding of its supply chain and issues related to labour standards. There is a high level of alignment among staff and top management on implementing the FWF CoLP.

Star Sock communicates transparently about FWF membership and discloses supplier names in its social report.

Download

In 2018, Odd Molly met most of FWF’s performance requirements. The company had 90% of its purchasing volume under monitoring, meeting the required monitoring threshold. The company has a benchmark score of 63, which places Odd Molly in the ‘Good’ category.

A sustainability council that meets monthly, was set up in 2018 at Odd Molly to help with the implementation of Odd Molly’s overall sustainability strategy across departments. The council, composed of one representative from each department, has proven to beneficial in the dissemination of the company strategy towards sustainability, which includes FWF membership. Additionally, a representative from each relevant department (design, production, logistics, assortment manager etc) is involved in supplier evaluation in relation to compliance with the FWF Code of Labour Practices. Through these people, Odd Molly now has a systematic evaluation procedure which integrates every department’s input in the decision-making process. This resulted in significant progress towards resolving existing Corrective Action Plans. The remediation process was organised in a more structured way with the formulation of specific and detailed Corrective Action Plans for the production locations, visits that include more general and in-depth discussions about progress and adequate follow-up of complaints. Odd Molly maintains regular contact with suppliers as well as intermediaries, to follow up on external audits and uses the FWF quality assessment tool to assess them and develop a CAP from which to follow-up.

Odd Molly can still make improvements to the timeline of follow up on remediation and complaints. FWF recommends Odd Molly to especially follow up on complaints and critical findings within CAPs in a timely manner.

Whilst Odd Molly has started a costing analysis for their products and is in initial discussions on wages with their suppliers, further steps can still be made with regards to improving wages. The company still needs to set target wages together with suppliers to work towards the payment of a living wage. With the help of external consultants, FWF Costing Sheets and labour minute value calculations, Odd Molly can gain more insight into their pricing policy and be able to demonstrate the link between their buying prices and wage levels in production locations. Odd Molly should initiate more WEPs and encourage suppliers to attend supplier seminars where possible, in order to help their suppliers gain more of an understanding of compliance issues within garment production.

Download

B&C Cotton group (hereafter B&C) has met most of FWF’s performance requirements. With a score of 47 and a monitoring threshold of 95%, the member is placed in the ‘Good’ category.

B&C has a limited list of suppliers with which it has long-standing and direct relationships. The member mainly produces in Bangladesh, where its Dhaka Liaison Office (DLO) follows up on production planning, quality, and social compliance. The due diligence and monitoring process of B&C follows Fristads Group’s policy and requirements. The compliance office of the group, based in Hong Kong, supports and coordinates factories’ compliance with the group’s Code of Conduct.

B&C is required to collect the signed Code of Labour Practices and questionnaires as well as making sure the FWF CoLP is posted on factory floors. B&C has very high leverage at some key suppliers so it is expected that progress will be made regarding remediation of overtime, fire safety compliance, and further CAP remediation. On top of that, the member is expected to look further into wage increases and exit a supplier which was terminated by the Accord in Bangladesh.

Download

Mayerline has shown insufficient progress in performance indicators. The brand received a total benchmarking score of 47, which is below the minimum score needed for a ‘Good’ rating. Its monitoring percentage is 82%, which is just over the required monitoring threshold.

Mayerline had to invest a lot of time in 2018 in laying the foundations for its work with FWF. The brand developed an onboarding process for new suppliers in which due diligence is integrated from the start. While these procedures are now in place, for 2018 there is still a disconnect with what Mayerline could show that had been done for locations added in 2017 and 2018.
Mayerline needs to look closer at country-specific risks that may occur in its supply chain. It is not sufficient to request existing audit reports for suppliers located in Prato and Lombardia in Italy, or Turkey, without follow up. High risk locations need to be visited. This is also helpful in checking on potential unauthorised subcontracting. Where CAP issues have been identified in existing audit reports, the member needs to follow up on them.

FWF also expects members to take steps towards implementing living wages. Mayerline is strongly encouraged to check if its prices are able to cover the legal minimum wage, especially after an increase in wages. The next step for Mayerline is to select suppliers with which it has a close relationship to work on open costing and define the gap between wages paid and living wage benchmarks. The brand then needs to implement measures to close this gap

Download

In 2018 Triaz showed advanced results on performance indicators and has made exceptional progress. Triaz has monitored 99% of is own production and, with a benchmarking score of 83, has been awarded the ‘Leader’ category again.

Triaz has a systematic way of approaching FWF membership, sufficient capacity to monitor and follow up and a dedicated attitude to inform, train and learn with suppliers how to improve further. The brand has the ability to actually find root causes at the production location level and to identify measures to improve.

Triaz has continued its efforts to work on the planning and prevention of excessive overtime in its supply chain, which seems to be reflected in the audit results. Triaz has also worked on living wages by doing a wage analysis of sample products at some of its key suppliers and setting target wages. The analyses show that at those suppliers, prices were in theory high enough to pay a living wage. Based on that information, Triaz began a root cause analysis of why living wages were not paid. Furthermore, where possible, the brand contributed to changing the working process to overcome the identified issue.

Download