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 2021.
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 £52m.
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.
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 have conducted Stronger Together training for key members of People, Operations, Technical and Procurement functions and have also added training to part of our induction process for all colleagues. Some colleagues on development programmes are also being given the training.
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 have been reminded of the Group Whistle-blowing Policy as the primary method of reporting any suspicions or evidence of slavery or human trafficking. We have also re-publicised the WJFG whistle-blowing policy in our internal comms 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.
We 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.
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: