Suppliers and subcontractors

Procurement focuses on choices that support sustainable development

The basis for a successful and long-term partnership is fairness, mutual respect and listening. Our relationship towards suppliers and subcontractors is steered by procurement criteria and the Code of Conduct.

The goal of our procurement operations is to promote our company’s finances and to develop the quality and efficiency of our procurement. Our procurement operations are proactive and systematic. We take financial, ethical, social and ecological development into account in our procurement. Procurement planning takes total and lifecycle costs into account and ensures economical and effective control of our products and services.

We only sell ethically manufactured products. We track the origin of the wood we use and our suppliers’ responsibility. We use wood origin chain of custody systems to ensure that all wood material is acquired from a legally and ethically trustworthy source. We emphasise the importance of traceability to our suppliers and, when necessary, require traceability from their products. Our supplier contracts require the suppliers to ensure their accountability for sustainability.

In our procurement, we favour sustainable products and services. At the same time, we expect our suppliers and subcontractors to manage their own supply chains and all of the intermediate phases. We seek a reliable, respectful and honest relationship with our suppliers which benefits both parties.

Our Code of Conduct relays our expectations for supplier and subcontractor operations

We require all our suppliers and subcontractors to follow current legislation and to respect human rights and the basic rights of working life. This means that suppliers must comply with international human rights agreements as well as the International Labour Organization’s general agreements, the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, the operating country’s minimum wage and working hour legislation, and general environmental, health and safety requirements.

Our procurement agreements contain the following commitment: “The parties agree to take all possible measures to promote responsible and sustainable development in the performance of this contract. Practices will be developed in good co-operation and monitored regularly.”

We expect all our suppliers to respect absolute confidentiality and intellectual property rights. We expect our suppliers to focus on continual improvement of their own products and services, to have a capacity for renewal and innovation, to streamline their own manufacturing processes and to increase their expertise.

Our suppliers may not offer staff any personal, economical benefit or excessive accolades (gifts). You can find our Code of Conduct on our downloads.