Food You Can Trust

Our customers are loyal to Greggs because we offer them delicious, quality bakery food. Our approach to nutrition is guided by what our customers are telling us and by recognising our responsibility to give our customers quality food they can trust.

We have a programme of product reformulation to help us work towards the Food Standards Agency's targets on salt and fat reduction in food. We will make sensible reductions at a pace to ensure that the great taste of our products is not compromised for our customers.

We have introduced a number of new products in direct response to what our customers are telling us. For example, our national sandwich range now includes a number of ‘no mayonnaise' lines and two Healthier Options lines, as well as the traditional favourites.

Nutritional information is available for all our products through our customer contact team. In our shops, we have nutritional information for our national savoury, sandwich and drinks ranges. This gives the calorie content, as recommended information by the Food Standards Agency, and we also provide fat content to help inform our customers. Our national sandwich range also informs customers of the % GDA (Guideline Daily Allowance) for each product, in recognition that we want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to understand what they are eating.

We will continue our programme of product reformulation, new products and rolling out nutritional information in our shops for our national bread & rolls and sweet ranges.

Our nutritional information leaflet is also available here for download.

 Ethical Sourcing Policy

Greggs began as a family business and our Values guide us in maintaining ethical standards across our business. We are a responsible company and strive to ‘do the right thing’ when it comes to Ethical Sourcing. 

“We will be enthusiastic and supportive in all that we do, open, honest and appreciative,

treating everyone with fairness, consideration and respect”

What does Ethical Sourcing mean to Greggs?

At its heart, it’s about making sure our purchasing decisions are made as sustainably, ethically and responsibly as possible within our commercial framework.  It’s about ensuring that our supply needs are produced and delivered in a way that avoids abuse or exploitation of workers, animals and the environment. This means we consider the wider implications of our business decisions when making sourcing choices. 

We acknowledge that we are unable to drive significant change on our own in the UK and worldwide supplier base. We always seek, however, to use our scale to continuously drive improvements and we positively support the actions of others through the adoption of industry accepted standards.  We have a commitment to our customers, people and shareholders to maintain our reputation for great value products. There are occasions where cost needs to be the deciding factor and where we need to achieve a balanced outcome in our decision making.  However, the area on which we will never compromise is the use of quality ingredients - our customers can have confidence that our food contains high quality ingredients that have been sourced and produced in line with good practice. 

What We Do

We seek to source all our requirements (food, ingredients and other consumables) in as ‘responsible’ a way as possible, and in line with our Values.  We have focused our commitment to sourcing on 7 key areas: Relationships With Suppliers; Local Sourcing; Quality; Animal Welfare; Ethics; Environment; People.

Relationships With Suppliers

Our suppliers are our partners and without them we could not deliver quality bakery food to our customers. In line with our values of being open and honest, and treating everyone with fairness, consideration and respect, we will:

·         Always value the contribution of our suppliers

·         Never mislead our suppliers to gain commercial advantage

·         Ensure all suppliers are considered equally on their merits

·         Keep to our standard terms and conditions regarding supplier payments

·         Be a signatory to the Prompt Payment Code

·         Consider the potential impact of our actions on our suppliers

·         Keep our suppliers informed of any changes in purchasing decisions to mitigate potential impacts

Local Sourcing

Our ethos is to support our local communities. This includes sourcing quality food, ingredients, products and other services from local and national companies, tradesman and suppliers.  Our preferred choice is to source from local and national suppliers, provided we can guarantee the quality that our customers expect from our products at an affordable price.   Where we do source from further afield, or where issues such as security of supply and lack of availability means UK sourcing is supplemented by overseas suppliers, we continue to apply our ethical stance.

Quality

In line with our vision to be ‘the best in bakery’, we are passionate about providing great tasting bakery food and we only source quality ingredients for our products.

What’s In Our Food?

·         All the products we make ourselves are free from artificial colours, added trans fats and hydrogenated fats

·         We have a programme to remove artificial flavours from all the products we make ourselves, and have a target that our final two products will be completed by the end of 2012

·         There are no GM (genetically modified) ingredients in any of the products that we make ourselves

How We Monitor Our Suppliers

·         All our suppliers are risk assessed on a regular basis, covering both technical and commercial risks, while our Category 1[1] suppliers are risk assessed on an annual basis

·         We carry out regular audits to ensure the standard / quality of products and manufacturing processes are at an acceptable level

·         All Category 1 supplier factories are BRC accredited, and we are working towards all suppliers meeting this (or equivalent) standard

Animal Welfare

We require our suppliers to properly rear, care for and handle animals, complying with good animal husbandry practices and legislation. These Standards will not be compromised for commercial gain.

We endeavour to ensure all sourcing is consistent with the principles of sustainability, and we are committed to continuously review our stance and move forward on sustainability issues in line with our customers’ expectations.   

·         We source free range eggs for our egg mayonnaise sandwiches and we have ensured that our other egg products will comply with the EU's Directive prohibiting the use of conventional battery cages for egg laying

·         The majority of our beef is sourced from UK-based grass fed suckler herds

·         Our pork is sourced from EU suppliers and always in compliance with current legislation and accepted international farming standards, third party quality controls and traceability backed by regular inspections

·         Our poultry needs are supplied from a combination of national and overseas suppliers. Our overseas suppliers meet the BRC Higher Accreditation Standard and we carry out our own rigorous audits of these suppliers on a regular basis to ensure animal welfare standards are consistent with UK requirements

Ethics

We have ‘Anti-Bribery & Corruption’ and ‘Business Conduct’ policies in place to ensure our Values are reflected in our purchasing policies and in our dealings with everyone with whom we do business.

We are able to make a positive difference through our commitment to purchasing Fairtrade products.  Currently these include:

·         Tea

·         Coffee

·         Orange Juice

·         Apple Juice

·         Drinking Chocolate

·         Sugar Sachets

By sourcing Fairtrade goods, we are able to support marginalised producers in developing countries by guaranteeing a minimum price and a Fairtrade premium.  This secure income allows producers to plan for a more sustainable future and also in turn to support their local communities through investment in local schools, health care and infrastructure. We will continuously review this selection of products and will include other socially responsible items where practical.

Environment

Society in general, through growing population, climate change issues and unsustainable farming / fishing practices, is facing potential threats to food security.  If we are to continue to offer our customers quality bakery food at great value prices, we need to ensure the sustainability of our business, and this includes considering the environmental impacts of our supply chain. 

In line with our values we will not knowingly purchase ingredients, goods and services from suppliers that continue to undertake their business in a way which causes significant damage to the environment.  Where we do become aware of environmental concerns, our first aim will be to work with the supplier to find a solution to the problem, and this is demonstrated by our commitments on Tuna and Palm Oil (see below). Failing this we will seek to source from an alternative supplier.

Fresh Produce

In line with our commitment to sourcing a proportion of our requirement locally, we minimise the importing of fresh ingredients from overseas, avoiding the subsequent carbon impact.

Sustainable Fishing

Through our partnership with our tuna supplier, we only source Skipjack tuna and not endangered / at risk species (such as Yellow Fin, Blue Fin or Bigeye).  Fishing is not via drift nets or long line methods and we are committed to move to 100% ‘FAD-free’ & ‘Pole and Line’ fishing by 2016.  Our tuna is fished from the Indian Ocean.

Our prawns are sourced from the Davis Strait area of Western Greenland and our supplier, along with the entire fishing industry in Greenland, is currently working towards MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification. 

Sustainable Palm Oil

The past few decades have seen rapid expansion in the production of palm oil. This expansion has put pressure on the environment and on societies where the palm is grown. We have already converted 100% of our liquid palm oil needs to Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) and we require all our suppliers of palm oil to be members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).  We are actively working to substantially increase the proportion of CSPO we use and plan to have all of our Palm Oil sourced from sustainable plantations by 2015.

People

We never forget that it is our people who make us a successful company - the pride and pleasure they clearly take in their work is a key point of difference for Greggs. That’s why we want all our people to feel individually valued and cared for, and for each person to share in the Company’s success. While not directly under our control, this aim goes beyond our own 20,000 people, to include those employed by our supplier partners.

While not signatories to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), our plans include the addition of the principles of the ETI base code into our supplier selection and auditing processes.  Suppliers are expected to ensure that:

·         Working conditions are safe and hygienic and that safety is effectively managed within their business

·         Employment is freely chosen and no forced or bonded labour is used

·         Labour practices do not involve the harsh or inhumane treatment of employees

·         Exploitative child labour is not used

·         Fair and reasonable wages are paid to employees and working hours are not excessive

·         Their employees’ rights to trade union membership and collective bargaining are respected

·         No discrimination is practised

Where we have been aware of existing issues affecting a particular sector, we have already clarified our suppliers’ stance and policy.