Sports clothing giant Puma has publicly released the results of its ethical auditing of supplier factories for the first time.
The German-based multinational has audited all its suppliers since
2002, but had decided against revealing details in the early stages,
partly because the system was still being developed. However, it has
now released figures covering 337 audits in more than 30 countries, and
has made details of its list of worldwide suppliers publicly available,
also for the first time.
The company is particularly keen to see supply chain improvements
before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when it expects campaign groups
will put it under the spotlight along with other sports goods companies.
During the 2004 Olympics in Athens, sportswear companies were targeted
by the Play Fair anti-sweatshop campaign led by Oxfam. Since then Puma
has worked with the German Network of Business Ethics, talking to
interested parties, among them the Clean Clothes Campaign, which is a
pressure group, and the International Textile and Leather Union.
Rival sportswear company Nike broke new ground by publishing its list
of suppliers earlier this year, and clothing company Gap has been
praised by non-governmental organizations in the past 12 months for the
extent of its disclosure on supplier audits. Puma said it had released
its list in response to NGOs and unions, who say they need to know the
factories the company uses if they are to track its performance on
freedom of association and other issues.
Puma says 34 of the 337 factories it audited last year were placed in
its lowest category for having such poor workplace standards that they
would not be used. A further 51 were ‘non-compliant’ but have agreed to
make improvements. Two-thirds of the factories – 207 of them – were
rated good to satisfactory, and 45 were categorized as ‘very good’.
Puma says the audits have found no evidence of child labour in its
supply chain, even in factories rated in the bottom two categories. The
main areas of ‘major non-conformance’ are excessive overtime, provision
of rest days, poor wages and a general lack of maternity and other
benefits.
Seven in ten of the company’s 349 active supplier factories are in
Asia. The largest numbers are in China (55), Cambodia (38) and Turkey
(35).
Problems remain, but performance has improved overall. The number of
factories rated last year as ‘good’ rose by 30 per cent and as ‘very
good’ by five per cent. Only nine per cent of re-audited suppliers
slipped down a rating, but this was partly because Puma upgraded its
standards.
Puma, which had a €2billion ($2.4bn, £1.36bn) turnover last year, said
poor social and environmental performance is now the most common reason
for dropping suppliers, accounting for 69 per cent of all contract
terminations. However, it adds that this reflects Puma’s tougher
attitude in this area rather than a decline in general standards.
