Our sourcing strategy

1.4 Integration of monitoring activities in sourcing decisions

Each new supplier needs to sign the FWF Code of Labor Practice and to fill in the questionnaire on production location data. A “due diligence check” will be done, based on country and/or specific risks and performed audit reports. If a new supplier refuses to sign or to post the Code of Labor Practices, or if he is not transparent on the production locations, we will not work with this supplier.

For other suppliers, if key issues are found during an audit or serious issues are reported within the complaint procedure, our company will immediately start an open discussion with the supplier to see how it can be solved, and which immediate actions are possible. A plan of action will be set up together with the supplier and followed very closely by The Woody group. Our company will stop placing orders in case of unwillingness to improve, unwillingness to negotiate and set up a corrective action plan, or in case of refusal to take actions.

In 2022, we observe in the case of our Chinese supplier Desen that they are not open for auditing. As this is a long term partnership highly valued for good quality, we will follow up the evolution in 2023 closely.

Ravdee an agent with whom we have really good personal connection has visited us in the spring of 2022. We discussed openly that the orders of their specific woven items are too low for winter seasons. We have ordered 150 pieces as by their request for our last coöperation in winter 2022 as a bulkorder, as promised so.

Their contracting factory in China is also not open for auditing. We followed the FWF guidelines on responsible exit strategy. We had an open discussion with this supplier, we phased out, and we had a guarantee that workers were not disadvantages by our decision, as our leverage in this factory was really low.