Modern slavery statement

At Loaf we make laid-back furniture for people to really kick off their shoes and lead happier, more relaxed lives. We're champions of serious quality and good old-fashioned craftsmanship. And we're pulling our socks up to do our bit for both the Earth and the communities we work in. We're not perfect. But we're on an exciting journey to do better.

As part of our commitment to combatting all forms of modern slavery we have produced this Modern Slavery Statement that strictly prohibits the use of forced labour, child labour and human trafficking within our business, operations and supply chains.

This statement sets out our zero-tolerance approach to such abuses of human rights and will reserve our right to terminate relationships with any supplier in the event of non-compliance (and a subsequent failure by the supplier in question to address any breaches once identified and notified in respect of the same).

Modern slavery definition

Modern Slavery is defined by the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) as the overarching term used to describe a number of specific issues, including human trafficking, forced and compulsory labour, bonded labour and slavery, servitude and child labour.

Here at Loaf it is important to us (and, we're sure, you our customers) that as a business we take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are working hard to ensure these crimes and violations of fundamental human rights do not exist in either our business activities or our supply chains.

Modern slavery statement

This statement has been published in accordance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the MSA), pursuant to Section 54(1), Part 6. It sets out the steps planned to be taken by Loaf to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.

Our business

Established in 2008 and based in West London, Really Comfy Beds Limited, trading as Loaf, is a retail business that designs and sells home furniture and furnishings online and in our 10 Shacks (stores). We partner with Wincanton plc to provide warehousing and delivery direct to customers' homes.

Really Comfy Beds Limited is a private company limited by shares, incorporated in England and Wales under company number 06455834.

Total number of Loaf employees as of November 2023: 251

Loaf's employees are solely based in the United Kingdom.

Our governance structure

Loaf works cross functionally to implement tools and systems to prevent modern slavery and labour exploitation in our own operations and our manufacturing and supply chains. The Product Integrity function (product sustainability, supplier management and quality) reports into the Chief Product Officer (CPO) who sits on the Loaf Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The CPO is kept aware of risks and where necessary reports these to the wider SLT and Board.

Product supply chains

As a reflection of our commitment to supporting local business and artisans, all of our made to order sofas, beds and mattresses are manufactured in the UK. We also work with suppliers across the world to source our innovative and unique stocked products as part of our growing range of homewares.

Loaf values its suppliers and prides itself on having collaborative and long term relationships with all of our makers. Whilst we don't own any factories we make a conscious choice to only collaborate with manufacturers who share and uphold the Loaf values.

Supplier onboarding & monitoring

We recognise that at the on-boarding stage we have considerable leverage with our makers in order to instil our ethical trading requirements ahead of developing a commercial relationship. Our on-boarding process requires Loaf's suppliers to agree to be contractually bound by the terms and conditions in our Commercial Agreement which includes clauses relating to Loaf's ethical policies and standards.

Loaf is committed to improving working standards in our supply chains through the application of international labour standards. Our Code of Conduct has been developed in line with the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Base Code. The ETI base code is founded on the conventions of the internationally recognised code of labour practice and all Loaf suppliers are expected to commit to working with us towards our Code of Conduct.

All suppliers to Loaf must adhere to the rules of all applicable local and international laws regulating child working and bonded labour. Our makers must also agree to assist and cooperate with us on any due diligence checks, audits, and inspections that we may undertake to verify their compliance with these commitments.

Ethical auditing

We use third party ethical audits as one tool to gain visibility of the working conditions and worker welfare across our supply chain. We prefer for factories to hold SMETA, BSCI or SA800 audits but will consider other third party audits as long as they embody the principles of the Loaf Code of Conduct.

It is important that our relationships within the supply chain are built on honesty and trust to enable us to work towards continual improvement, so if a supplier does not meet the minimum standards as set out in our requirements Loaf may work with them to establish an appropriate course of action and timescales for improvement.

As a last resort Loaf may terminate a supplier relationship if any breach of the requirements is considered to be severe or persistent, or if the supplier is either unwilling or unable to make improvements within a reasonable timescale.

Goods and services not for resale (GNFR)

Our GNFR suppliers are required to demonstrate their compliance with the Modern Slavery Act by providing details of its policies on slavery and human trafficking and providing assurances that it does not (and nor does any entity within its supply chain) engage in slavery or human trafficking or any associated activity.

One of our largest GNFR suppliers is Wincanton plc. We have partnered with Wincanton since 2014, and they provide warehousing and delivery of Loaf products. As a strategic partner to Loaf, Wincanton remains committed to the highest possible ethical standards and corporate conduct. The Wincanton Group has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and human trafficking and requires companies across its extended supply chain to understand and meet its expectations on anti-bribery, corruption, legal compliance and ethical conduct.

Policies & training

Loaf is committed to sourcing our products' responsibly whilst upholding and protecting the human rights of all workers in our organisation and supply chains.

We follow the following international codes and standards as part of this process:

The Base Code of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Our internal policies

Our internal Loaf policies help to ensure that we minimise the risk of harm associated with modern slavery and human trafficking in our direct business operations, as well as with related matters such as unsatisfactory working conditions and discrimination.

Loafer's guide

Our employee handbook includes policies on inclusion, diversity & equality, health and safety, grievance procedures and whistleblowing. The Whistleblowing Policy in particular ensures that all employees know that they can raise concerns without fear of reprisal.

Recruitment

We conduct eligibility-to-work checks for all new employees to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will.

Employee training

We want our Loafers to understand the importance of slavery and trafficking, and how they, and the business, must be part of the solution. All new starters receive a copy of our Modern Slavery Statement in their induction pack and we will be developing compulsory modern slavery training for all of our employees in 2024.

Salient modern slavery risks

We have identified that the greatest risk with respect to modern slavery is within our supply chains. In order to perform targeted and effective due diligence on our supply base, we use external indicator tools such as the Global Slavery Index (GSI) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) labour rights index.

Our 'Achievements and Intentions' section of this statement, outlines how we're responding to the key risks that we've identified.

	Typical area of work	Potential prevalence in Loaf supply chains
Contract and agency workers	Contract and agency workers usually perform seasonal work and specialist processes.	Contract and agency workers are prevalent in warehousing and logistics. There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.
Migrant workers	Migrant workers can be vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of understanding of their employment rights. Migrant workers can be found in all tiers of a supply chain and across all product areas.	Migrant workers may be prevalent in lower paid, manual roles. There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.
Refugee workers	Refugees and other minority groups are vulnerable to all types of modern slavery. Often refugees can be vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of understanding of their rights and lack of access to legal work. Minority groups can be found in all tiers of a supply chain and across all product areas.	Migrant workers may be prevalent in lower paid, manual roles. There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.
Workers living in poverty	Being poor can mean being subjected to discrimination on the grounds of poverty. It is both a cause and a product of human rights violations. Those living in poverty are often vulnerable to exploitation because they lack safety, security or support due to their economic situation.	Vulnerable workers may be prevalent in lower paid, manual roles. There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.
Women workers	Women are particularly vulnerable to labour exploitation. Inequality based on gender can be seen in all tiers of a supply chain and across all product areas. Women are particularly prevalent in homeworking supply chains.	There's potential risk in all tiers, however furniture supply chains worker demographics are generally more skewed towards a higher prevalence of male workers. There's also potential risk in specific categories of products for example handwoven products like rugs and baskets. There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.
Children and young workers	Children and young workers are vulnerable to all forms of labour exploitation. Whilst they can be found in all tier levels, for all types of products, high prevalence areas are subcontracted processes and homeworking locations.	There is lower risk in our UK supply chains. There's potential risk in homework products such as rugs and baskets. There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Typical area of work

Potential prevalence in Loaf supply chains

Contract and agency workers

Contract and agency workers usually perform seasonal work and specialist processes.

Contract and agency workers are prevalent in warehousing and logistics.

There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Migrant workers

Migrant workers can be vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of understanding of their employment rights.

Migrant workers can be found in all tiers of a supply chain and across all product areas.

Migrant workers may be prevalent in lower paid, manual roles.

There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Refugee workers

Refugees and other minority groups are vulnerable to all types of modern slavery. Often refugees can be vulnerable to exploitation due to lack of understanding of their rights and lack of access to legal work.

Minority groups can be found in all tiers of a supply chain and across all product areas.

Migrant workers may be prevalent in lower paid, manual roles.

There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Workers living in poverty

Being poor can mean being subjected to discrimination on the grounds of poverty. It is both a cause and a product of human rights violations.

Those living in poverty are often vulnerable to exploitation because they lack safety, security or support due to their economic situation.

Vulnerable workers may be prevalent in lower paid, manual roles.

There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Women workers

Women are particularly vulnerable to labour exploitation.

Inequality based on gender can be seen in all tiers of a supply chain and across all product areas.

Women are particularly prevalent in homeworking supply chains.

There's potential risk in all tiers, however furniture supply chains worker demographics are generally more skewed towards a higher prevalence of male workers.

There's also potential risk in specific categories of products for example handwoven products like rugs and baskets.

There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Children and young workers

Children and young workers are vulnerable to all forms of labour exploitation.

Whilst they can be found in all tier levels, for all types of products, high prevalence areas are subcontracted processes and homeworking locations.

There is lower risk in our UK supply chains.

There's potential risk in homework products such as rugs and baskets.

There's possible risk in our supply chains in known high prevalence countries.

Achievements & intentions

Following risk mapping of labour rights risks and potentially vulnerable groups of workers, we've built on our recent achievements to focus on some of these key areas in 2024.

Workstreams	Current achievements	2024 Intentions
Transparency	We invested in systems and reporting to support product traceability.	We are continuing to invest in our systems to further enhance the detailed visibility of our end to end supply chain.
Supply chain due diligence	We are formalising tools and mechanisms to assess human rights standards in our supply chains which is a vital part of modern slavery eradication. We continued to develop our responsible sourcing practices by implementing a robust supplier onboarding programme this year that ensures that we only work with manufacturers that share and uphold our values and standards. Factories that don't meet our standards are rejected until they can prove that they do.	We will continue to identify ways to reduce the risk of modern slavery in our procurement process and GNFR partners.
Modern slavery training & awareness	We initiated our modern slavery commitments by increasing the understanding of the topic within the business. This includes distributing our Modern Slavery Statement to all employees and new starters.	Increasing awareness of identifying the signs of modern slavery is a core action for 2024. We will develop compulsory modern slavery training for our SLT and employees with the aim to increase business wide skills in identifying and preventing modern slavery risks.
Protecting vulnerable workers	We reviewed and updated our Commercial Agreement & Supplier Manual ready for roll out in January 2024. Our Loaf Code of Conduct includes strict prohibition on all forms of modern slavery.	We will roll out additional policies as part of the development of our sustainability strategy. This will include a Responsible Sourcing Policy, that will indicate Loaf's requirements in terms of raw material procurement.
Resource	We invested in our leadership capabilities during the year in order to be well set up to develop and deliver our sustainability plans.	Building capability through specialist guided training is fundamental to preventing labour exploitation and human rights abuses. We're committing to providing our product and operations teams with specialist training in order to build capability within the team on identifying and managing labour exploitation in our highest risk areas.

Board approval

This statement was approved by Loaf's Board of Directors which will be reviewing and updating it where relevant annually.

Modern slavery statement

Modern slavery definition

Modern slavery statement

Our business

Our governance structure

Product supply chains

Supplier onboarding & monitoring

Ethical auditing

Goods and services not for resale (GNFR)

Policies & training

Our internal policies

Loafer's guide

Recruitment

Employee training

Salient modern slavery risks

Achievements & intentions

Board approval

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