Supplier Management
Find out more about our approach to supplier management
Ensuring that our suppliers have effective management systems in place
We have a zero tolerance approach to forced labour of any kind within our operations and supply chain. We take any incidents very seriously and would work with the relevant authorities and experts to ensure that individuals are protected.
We have recently reissued and extended the reach of our Codes of Practice on Responsible Labour User and Responsible Employment Requirements. Our suppliers are required to have appropriate ways of working to ensure that these requirements are met.
We expect our suppliers to engage our workers in line with legal requirements. They are required to check that all workers have a right to work in a particular country and that they are of legal working age. This applies even if workers are supplied through labour providers, agents or gangmasters. For example, in the UK suppliers are also expected to ensure that labour providers have a valid license from the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
We understand that flexible working arrangements are essential in the food industry. They can also be beneficial to workers so they can balance work around other commitments. We do expect however, that our suppliers manage the flexibility of the workforce responsibly.
We are a member of the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment and are committed to the Employer Pays Principle.
Establishing positive relationships with our suppliers
We are committed to building strong relationships with our suppliers. This is reinforced by the systems and controls we’ve put in place to comply with the Groceries (Supply Chain Practices) Market Investigation Order (the Order) and the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP).
We have reflected the requirements of GSCOP into our Terms of Trade which govern the trading relationship between M&S and our suppliers of food and household products.
We have appointed a Code Compliance Officer who is supported by our in-house legal department. We also provide training on the requirements of GSCOP which includes refresher programmes and training for new starters.
We believe we are in full compliance with the Order and GSCOP.
Each year we actively encourage our suppliers to participate in the independent survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of the Groceries Code Adjudicator.
Each year we also prepare an annual compliance report which we submit to the Competition and Markets Authority and Groceries Code Adjudicator. We include a summary of our compliance report in our Annual Report.
GSCOP Contacts
If you are an M&S supplier and have a GSCOP related query, please contact our Code Compliance Officer Max.Gillibrand@Marks-and-Spencer.com
If you are an M&S supplier and have an invoice or payment related query please contact our Vendor Support helpdesk Vendor.SupportFoods@Marks-and-Spencer.com
List of our Senior Buyers
If you are an M&S supplier and have a GSCOP query related to the products that you supply, please contact the relevant Senior Buyer in the first instance:
- Lisa.Raschia@marks-and-spencer.com : Fruit, Salads, Vegetables, Flowers/Plants, Frozen
- Katharine.Haenelt@marks-and-spencer.com : Poultry, Meat, Fish, Dairy, Delicatessen, Bakery, In Store Bakery
- David.Stokes@marks-and-spencer.com : Meals, Desserts, Food on the Move
- Caroline.Cromar@marks-and-spencer.com : Hospitality
- Lizzy.Massey@marks-and-spencer.com : Groceries, Savouries, Biscuits & Celebration, Homecare, Soft Drinks, Juice
- Michael.Andrews@marks-and-spencer.com : Beers, Wines, Spirits (Until April 2021)
- Andrew.x.Shaw@marks-and-spencer.com : Beers, Wines, Spirits (from April 2021)
- Rebecca.Overton@marks-and-spencer.com : M&S own label Beauty
- Rebecca.Cullen@marks-and-spencer.com : Branded Beauty
The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA)
Contact details for the GCA and more information can be found on the GCA website Groceries Code Adjudicator
Marks and Spencer Food Terms of Trade
Marks and Spencer trade with our suppliers on our standard Terms of Trade/Supply Agreement (for all suppliers engaged before March 2021)
Marks and Spencer trade with our suppliers on our standard Terms of Trade/Supply Agreement (for all suppliers engaged from March 2021)
Within our supply chain we ensure all workers are paid at least the minimum wage. Overtime should always be compensated at a premium rate, and where piece work is used, suppliers must be able to demonstrate that the minimum wage is always met, that there is a fair test, and that rates are flexed according to conditions.
We have assessed our food supply base to understand where the gaps between minimum wages and poverty benchmarks are highest. This has enabled us to understand that the greatest gaps are within sub-Saharan Africa, where we will focus our further work. We have completed two collaborative projects in high-risk countries:
- Kenyan green beans project – this was a 3 year Comic Relief funded project where we worked with Traidcraft and our supplier Flamingo looking at our green bean smallholder supply chain in Kenya. The project looked at how the value chain can work more effectively to provide a more stable income for smallholders
- Malawi 2020 – we joined this tea revitalisation project in June 2015 in collaboration with the Ethical Tea Partnership and IDH. The project was set up following concerns that wages paid to tea workers in Malawi do not meet international poverty benchmarks.
Checking that our food safety and integrity standards are met
- Food Safety Audits are unannounced. Compliance is checked against our Food Safety Manufacturing Standard and Guidance.
- Integrity Audits are unannounced and we expect to be on the factory floor or in the office working within 15 minutes of arriving on site. Compliance is checked against a number of our key Codes of Practice (e.g. Segregation, Integrity, Quality, Ethical Trade, and our non-GM policy, etc)
Outstanding | Exceeds M&S requirements |
Good | Meets M&S requirements |
Needs Improvement | Improvement needed to meet all M&S requirements |
Unacceptable | Failing to meet M&S requirements |
Grading | Minor | Major | Critical |
Red | 10+ | 10+ | 1 or more |
Bronze | 10+ | 4-9 | 0 |
Silver | 4-9 | 1-3 | 0 |
Gold | 0-3 | 0 | 0 |
- No locked or blocked aisles/exits preventing use
- Firefighting equipment inaccessible, insufficient, unusable or wrong type or no training on its use
- No fire alarm
- No evacuation procedures, drills or training
- No, or adequate, functioning emergency lighting
- Systematic failures in health and safety systems
- Instances of bullying or harassment
Continent | Suppliers sites | Audited Supplier sites | Workers at supplier sites | Audited Workers | Audits | Improvement Required | Improvement Required per audit |
Africa | 64 | 21 | 72,331 | 27,553 | 20 | 110 | 5.2 |
Asia | 43 | 33 | 31,877 | 27,745 | 30 | 133 | 4.0 |
Europe | 870 | 203 | 448,503 | 166,775 | 202 | 846 | 4.2 |
North America | 6 | 1 | 2,310 | 232 | 1 | 3 | 3.0 |
Oceania | 14 | 0 | 5,505 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
South America | 44 | 18 | 57,727 | 34,246 | 18 | 129 | 7.2 |
Grand Total | 1041 | 276 | 618,253 | 256,551 | 271 | 1221 | 4.4 |
** M&S Salient Human Rights Issue – find out more about our approach to respecting human rights.
Building capability within our supply chain
We’re committed to working with our suppliers to help them develop the necessary skills and competencies to meet our requirements by offering a range of training and development opportunities.
Our training programmes cover a range of topics including integrity, pest control, allergen awareness, listeria investigation, and foreign body prevention. They are delivered through a variety of formats including e-learning, presentations, workshops, practical assessments, webinars or case studies.
We have designed training programmes to educate suppliers about local laws, their rights at work, and our Global Sourcing Principles.
We’ve launched a series of initiatives in partnership with educational colleges to provide the core skills needed to ensure the food industry’s future success. For example, in 2012 we launched the M&S Farming for the Future Education Programme in collaboration with our suppliers which aims to address the shortage of talented young people entering the agricultural industry. Find out more about our Farming for the Future Programme.
We actively work with our suppliers on supporting workers in our supply chain on programmes including leadership skills, financial literacy and health.
For example, we decided to work with Emerging Leaders an NGO that provided leadership training to around 50,000 supply chain workers in Kenya, east Africa and South Africa, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The training takes participates on an incredible journey to a new mind-set and empowers them to take others on the same journey as leaders in their communities. Many tell us that the programme has led to improved productivity, better retention of high quality, motivated employees and less dependency on casual labour.
We have an aspiration to be a leading major retailer on sustainability, but we can only achieve this if we spark systemic, innovative change within our supply base. We appreciate that it can be challenging for our suppliers to meet our requirements. We also know that it can be difficult for many suppliers to see what this brings in terms of direct benefits to them. We need to understand and be sensitive to these issues. Capacity building is absolutely essential to making this happen.
Whilst ongoing monitoring of compliance is of course necessary and useful, it is not the be all and end all. For instance, solely focusing on individual non-compliances can result in underlying issues being missed. In addition, this approach may not identify emerging issues or support the development of a continuous improvement culture within our supply base.
We therefore complement our existing activities by going ‘beyond compliance’ and defining areas of continuous improvement with our suppliers. We do this by providing a range of capacity building tools and incentives to align our respective goals and objectives. This includes capacity in terms of resources, technical skills, knowledge, as well as research and development.
For example, our Farming for the Future programme has been developed to help farmers identify risk factors, develop learning and share best practice to improve the profitability and sustainability of their businesses and supply chains.
Key documents