Ellis Brigham Modern Slavery Statement

At Ellis Brigham we pride ourselves on being a business with exemplary core values. We are customer focussed, expert in our advice, passionate for the outdoors and aim to be a fun place to work.

We are a technical mountain, outdoor clothing and accessories retailer, selling third party brands through our stores and online channels. We are passionate about the outdoors and our commitment to provide excellent customer service every day. We started in 1933 in a small shop on Conran Street in Harpurhey, Manchester and quickly established ourselves as the place to visit to have boots expertly made and fitted and to decide on that important personalised nailing pattern.

Over the years, Ellis Brigham shops have always been the first to sell the latest innovations, seeing waterproof garments move from being constructed with Ventile, to neoprene coated nylon and then to GORE-TEX fabrics. Footwear soon lost the nails and grew Vibram soles whilst leather uppers became suede and nylon and incorporated GORE-TEX liners.

Ellis Brigham is still going strong and is still proudly family-owned. We’ve got the world’s best brands and amazing products that will make your time spent in the mountains even more rewarding. Across the UK we now have 18 fantastic shops with friendly, knowledgeable staff who are all enthusiastic about the outdoors and understand implicitly your needs. Our shops really do bring the spirit of the mountains to the high street.

Within all these values, respecting people and the planet are paramount, to our owners, leadership team and staff therefore our Modern Slavery Statement flows from that. Our business consists of supplying third party brands that we believe in from a performance and ethical viewpoint.

Over the next few years we will move to exclusively supplying brands that can prove themselves to us wholly on their ethical, social and environmental credentials alongside their technical performance. It’s what we believe, what we understand our customers want, and what is the right thing to do to protect our sports and our planet.

"We are proud to be specialists, and to provide the best kit and expert advice, we want to help as many people as possible to enjoy their time outside to the full. We believe that it is better to LIVE.BREATHE.OUTDOORS."

Introduction

This statement sets out Ellis Brigham Ltd. actions to understand all potential modern slavery risks related to its business and to put in place steps that are aimed at ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our business and our supply chains. This statement relates to actions and activities during the financial year 1 July 2019 to 31 June 2020.         

As part of the retail sector, we recognise our responsibility to take a robust approach to slavery and human trafficking. The business is absolutely committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in its corporate activities, and to ensuring that its supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.

Countries of operation and supply

The business currently operates in the following countries:

  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Whistleblowing Policy

The organisation encourages all its colleagues, customers and other business partners to report any concerns related to the direct activities, or the supply chains of the organisation. This includes any circumstances that may give rise to an enhanced risk of slavery or human trafficking. The organisation's whistleblowing procedure is designed to make it easy for colleagues to make disclosures, without fear of retaliation.

We have shared this policy with all staff and will ensure that is reviewed each fiscal year and approved annually by the Ellis Brigham leadership team.

Security Policy

Health & Safety and the personal security of all our employees is a top priority for us. Whilst recognising the importance of good customer service, we also recognise that there will be occasions when customer behaviour is unacceptable. We recognise that violence and abuse pose a significant threat to the wellbeing of our retail staff. Whilst highly unusual in our business, the numbers of violent attacks involving wider retail colleagues is on the increase. Employees are not encouraged to put themselves at risk.

Recruitment Policy

Every person working for us, our suppliers and factories does so out of their own choice - with no forced, bonded or involuntary labour and no human trafficking or slavery. We believe every employee should be free to leave their employer after a reasonable notice period if they want to.

Whilst primarily using our in-house retail and marketing departments, we use only specified, reputable employment agencies to source labour and always verify the practices of any new agency we are using before accepting colleagues from that agency. We make sure that each labour provider is compliant with current legislation including the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Due diligence processes in relation to slavery and human trafficking in its business and supply chains:

We are committed to ensuring that our suppliers adhere to the highest standards of ethics. We are constantly striving to strengthen our mission of protecting people and planet. Suppliers are required to demonstrate that they provide safe working conditions where necessary, treat colleagues with dignity and respect, and act ethically and within the law in their use of labour.

We work with suppliers to ensure that they meet the standards of the code and improve their worker's working conditions. Serious violations of the organisation's supplier code of conduct will lead to the termination of the business relationship.

We enforce our suppliers via our general terms and conditions and we are committed to make further improvements in 2019, by self-audit and engaging 3rd parties to complete independent ethical checks including rolling out a new supply chain compliance programme and committing to independent regular audits.

Ellis Brigham will only accept merchandise if fundamental rights have been taken into consideration. By this we mean:

  • Management practice that respect the rights of all employees, including the right to free association and collective bargaining.
  • No child labour.
  • No forced, indentured, involuntary, illegal or bonded colleagues are used in the production of goods.
  • No labour which involves physical or mental abuse while producing our merchandise. Hours of work shall comply with applicable laws and local industry standards.
  • Wages are paid regularly, on time and be fair in respect of work performance.
  • A safe and healthy environment for those who are involved in the production of our merchandise.

Training about slavery and human trafficking available to its colleagues

We actively encourage personal development and all employees are given orientation and have access to all our policies. We have awareness training regarding slavery and human trafficking which all employees must complete on induction. Our retail team continuously evaluate training requirements, to refresh and develop everyone further in this regard.

Awareness-raising programme

As well as training staff, the business has raised awareness of modern slavery issues by highlighting to colleagues through internal communications so that all colleagues and managers are aware of our commitment in tackling modern slavery. We will also publish externally where appropriate.

The communication explains:  

  • The basic principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015;
  • How employers can identify and prevent slavery and human trafficking;
  • What employees can do to flag up potential slavery or human trafficking issues to the relevant parties within the organisation
  • What external help is available, for example through the Modern Slavery Helpline