Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement For the Financial Year Ended April 2019 

This statement is made in accordance with Section 54, Part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It constitutes our modern slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ended April 2019.

Structure

Jackson’s Bakery Limited is a subsidiary of William Jackson Food Group a sixth-generation family business. Jacksons specialises in baking sliced sandwich bread and supplies most of the major sandwich makers and food service companies in the UK and Europe. It also makes the Jackson’s Yorkshire’s Champion Bread. The company started baking from its Hull site in 1907 and now has two manufacturing sites, Hull and Corby. The turnover is around £65m.

Our Values

Our values underpin every aspect of our business, and consist of take pride, do the right thing and be the difference. We strive to be a business to be proud of and feel that a community should be a better place for having one of our businesses in it.

Policy Statement

We manage our supply chain with a great degree of care, recognising our supply partners as a crucial part of our business. We have direct suppliers, from whom we buy ingredients for our bread and packaging, and indirect suppliers, such as those who supply our utilities. The company sources over 150 ingredients and packaging from around 40 suppliers from both the UK and overseas, together with around 400 suppliers for indirect goods and services.

We are committed to eradicating all instances of modern slavery or human trafficking taking place in our business, or the suppliers we deal with. This statement reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships, and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure no slavery or human trafficking exists anywhere in our supply chains.

Ultimate responsibility for the prevention of modern slavery rests with the Company’s leadership. The Jackson’s Bakery Board has overall responsibility for ensuring this policy and its implementation comply with our legal, moral and ethical obligations. Leaders at all levels are responsible for ensuring those reporting to
them understand and comply with this policy and are given adequate and regular training on it and the issue of modern slavery.

Training and Awareness

We are working with the Stronger Together programme to ensure all relevant colleagues receive the appropriate level of training to raise awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking, and the knowledge to address any related issues which may arise.

We aim to encourage openness and will support anyone who raises genuine concerns in good faith under this policy, even if they turn out to be mistaken. We are committed to ensuring no one suffers any detrimental treatment as a result of reporting in good faith their suspicion that modern slavery of whatever form is or may be taking place in any part of our own business or in any of our supply chains.

Through our training programme and procedures, colleagues will be reminded of the Group Whistle- blowing Policy as the primary method of reporting any suspicions or evidence of slavery or human trafficking. We will accept and take seriously concerns communicated anonymously.

The Company encourages members of the public or people not employed by us to write, in confidence, to the Company Secretary or the Group People Director to raise any concern, issue or suspicion of modern slavery in any part of our business or related supply chain.

Prevention Within Our Business and Supply Chain

We will take action to address any evidence of slavery or human trafficking. During the past year we have undertaken the following key activities in order to assess and manage such risks within our business and supply chain:

• Co-ordinated activities across the Group via a multi-disciplinary steering group
• Conducted Stronger Together training for key members of People, Operations, Technical & Procurement functions
• Distributed Stronger Together materials for display at all our sites with their location and visibility checked by members of the steering group
• Conducted risk assessments across all suppliers of ingredients and packaging to determine which parts of our business and which of our suppliers are most at risk of modern slavery so that efforts can be focused on those areas.
• Engage with our suppliers both to convey to them our stance on modern slavery and to gain an understanding of the measures taken by them to ensure modern slavery is not occurring in their businesses.
• Continued to be active members of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex) and encouraged all of our suppliers to engage with organisations such as Sedex or the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) that promote the core conventions of the UN’s International Labour Organisation.
• Sign-posted suppliers to resources provided by Stronger Together and Sedex.

Our priorities for the coming year are:

• During the contract review process, engage directly with all suppliers assessed as being at high risk modern slavery or human trafficking within their own operations or external supply chains highlight awareness of the issue and understand the control measures they have in place.
• Re-publicise the WJFG whistle-blowing policy to ensure that all of our people understand how to safely raise any concerns they may have about possible instances of modern slavery or human trafficking within our own operations or our supply chains.
• Extend supplier risk assessments to selected categories of indirect expenditure alongside existing risk assessments of suppliers of ingredients and packaging.
• Record and report on Sedex (or equivalent) membership of our ingredients and packaging suppliers.
• Extend internal Stronger Together training to all members of the Procurement and HR functions and to Technical and Operations management.
• Extend risk assessments down the supply chain into ‘hot-spot’ areas.
• Place modern slavery and human trafficking as a regular agenda item on all relevant synergy group meetings.
• We will signpost smaller suppliers to the Home Office supported consultancy service to assist them
  in identifying, addressing and managing their exposure to modern slavery and human trafficking.
• We will ensure that GLAA-compliant audits are conducted on all labour providers.

This statement has been reviewed and approved by the Management Board of William Jackson Food Group Limited on 24th September 2019.