In common with other major retailers, much of La Senza's sourcing for merchandise originates from several countries located throughout the world. We are particularly sensitive to the fact that the factories supplying our needs should maintain high ethical standards towards their employees. To meet this objective we have appointed an ethical standards manager whose job it is to ensure that every new factory is inspected, and every current factory is re-inspected, to make certain that they comply with recognized international standards relating to employment, wages, overtime, factory environment, and employees' freedom of expression and movement, the whole within local laws and regulations.
Recognizing our responsibility in this area, we have defined our own ethical trade code of conduct as a basis for dealing with current and future vendors, which can be found in our Ethical Trade Code of Conduct. La Senza's aim is to ensure that every business decision and operation in which it is involved respects social welfare. When customers buy our merchandise, we want them to be confident that it has been produced under acceptable conditions; in other words, lawfully and without exploitation. It is the responsibility of La Senza suppliers to ensure that products are sourced from manufacturers who care about their workforce and consistently implement acceptable working conditions. Suppliers must meet the conditions of our code of conduct. This has at its base the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) code of conduct.
In the event that a supplier does not control/own its own manufacturing sources, it is a condition of business that all manufacturing units be personally visited by the agent supplying La Senza (not a third party agent) and be found to comply with our code of conduct. The agent must keep a portfolio of the manufacturers it uses, which should be available for scrutiny at any time. La Senza encourages suppliers to use external organizations specializing in this area to audit their factories using the criteria in our code of conduct.
It must be made clear to the manufacturers that sub-contracting is not permitted, unless the sub-contractor can be found to comply with the code and other sub-contracting requirements.
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