Modern Slavery Statement

Modern Slavery Statement

 

Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement 2024/25

 

Background:

This statement is made pursuant to the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act 2010, in recognition that throughout the world there are instances of slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. It relates to the period 1/4/24 to 31/3/25.

 

Companies doing business in the UK and the State of California are required to produce a statement regarding the steps they have taken throughout the financial year to demonstrate the part they have played in mitigating this issue, and their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their own business operations and supply chains.

 

Jellycat commitment overview:

At Jellycat, we are committed to ensuring workers’ rights are respected and protected in all our manufacturing locations, wherever they are in the world.

 

We have a zero tolerance approach to modern slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and child labour. We are determined that slavery and human trafficking in any form should not enter our supply chain, and the integrity with which our products are created should be upheld all the way through the manufacturing process and beyond.

 

The Jellycat Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice (JCRSCOP) summarises the key requirements that product suppliers must meet in order to work with Jellycat (more detail below) and to ensure that our zero tolerance approach is followed.

 

Our Business 

Jellycat was established in 1999 in London.  We design and produce luxury soft toys for customers all over the world.

 

We are a UK-based company and our global Head Office is in London.

 

We also have sizeable teams in our offices in Minneapolis, USA and Shanghai, China to support our sales and customer activities in North America and Northeast Asia respectively, as well as smaller teams of commercial account representatives in various cities in Europe. 

 

Our well established Production Operations team in Seoul, South Korea liaises closely with our suppliers; and full time Jellycat teams in Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia work directly with each of our manufacturing sites in those countries.

 

Our senior management have a clear directive to report any concerns in relation to modern slavery and to act upon them without delay. 

 

Our Supply Chain 

Our production supply chain (the companies and people who help manufacture our products) includes manufacturers in Asia. 

 

Since our establishment in 1999 we have strived to develop, maintain and uphold direct and sustainable relationships with all our product manufacturers.  This provides us with transparency throughout every step of the manufacturing process. It also encourages collaborative partnerships based on honesty and openness.

 

We work with a small number of product manufacturers, most of whom have worked with Jellycat for a number of years. They are selected for their specialist manufacturing expertise and commitment to high quality products made in an ethical manner in safe working environments. 

 

We only allow production in authorised approved manufacturing sites and we do not permit out-sourcing of any part of production of Jellycat soft toys and books.

 

We have fully mapped and have direct relationships with all our tier 1 supplier manufacturing sites. We continue to map and build strong relationships with our Tier 2 suppliers – those who manufacture the main fabrics and components. 

 

TIER 1 - our suppliers and their manufacturing units who manufacture our finished products

TIER 2 - fabric mills, components suppliers, label and packaging suppliers that supply the manufacturing units.

 

Risk Evaluation & Verification

We recognise that in our industry, and therefore our business, the risks of human trafficking and modern slavery are greatest in our suppliers’ manufacturing supply chains, particularly where there are migrant workers – domestic or international.

 

Our product manufacturers operate in South East Asia. Our core soft toy ranges are produced in Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and a small amount of non-core range products and promotional merchandise are manufactured in China.  In summer 2024 we started to work with a new supplier in Bangladesh, preparing for production and shipments to start later in 2025.

 

In 2024, we added country benchmarking to our risk assessment information. This allows us to understand how our suppliers compare to all other manufacturers and to identify and understand key risk areas, including specific assessment of risks related to migrant workers.

 

Our Policies & Certification

We have zero tolerance approach to modern slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and child labour. To support this policy, the Jellycat Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice (JCRSCOP) outlines the key requirements that our manufacturers and suppliers must follow in order to work with Jellycat.

 

The JCRSCOP specifies in detail the responsibility of manufacturers and suppliers to adhere to requirements for worker well-being and safety, including requirements under the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act. It reinforces our zero-tolerance approach by specifically prohibiting forced labour and modern slavery, and sets out other requirements relating to safe working conditions, wages and working hours etc.

 

The requirements are based on the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and internationally recognised ethical trade standards.  Where local law allows for different requirements, we expect suppliers to comply with the requirements which provide the greatest protection for the workers. More details can be found in the Corporate Responsibility page of our website.

 

We engage with our product suppliers to ensure they embed our requirements within their own supply chains, to ensure full understanding that Jellycat will not tolerate any form of modern slavery.

 

All of our tier 1 manufacturing partners have signed the JCRSCOP and this certifies their commitment to the standards required.

 

Due Diligence Monitoring and Auditing

One of the requirements of the JCRSCOP is that all manufacturing sites used by our current suppliers are required to undertake annual independent third-party audits to an internationally recognised audit programme, ie SMETA or ICTI.  These audits include worker interviews, documentary evidence checks and site tours. Audits can be planned or unannounced.

 

If a current supplier wants to use a new manufacturing site to produce Jellycat products, they are required to undergo a full audit as soon as possible. We support these new units by working with the suppliers to ensure the correct requirements are embedded from the start.

 

New suppliers have to undergo third party audits of their manufacturing sites before we confirm orders for Jellycat products with them.

The audit programmes include assessment of the suppliers’ communication of Jellycat requirements throughout their supply chain, in particular related to forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.

 

In addition to the third-party audits, Jellycat senior team members regularly visit every manufacturing site and have frequent dialogue with suppliers and manufacturing teams.  Jellycat local teams are in place in the manufacturing sites on a daily basis.

 

As a result, we have ongoing direct communication with all manufacturers and key partners within the production process, re-iterating the values integral to our business to ensure those values are adhered to within their supply chain also. 

 

We encourage all our suppliers to work with open transparency with us and to discuss any concerns or issues in the knowledge that Jellycat will support continuous improvements in all areas (with third party partners as appropriate).

 

During 2024-25, as part of our continuous assessment programme, third party auditors completed full SMETA / ICTI audits for all our tier 1 suppliers’ manufacturing units at least once. 

 

There were no issues identified relating to forced labour, modern slavery or human trafficking.

 

All non-compliance of other issues that were identified were resolved through corrective action plans. 

 

Non-Compliance with Policies

We have clearly identified and communicated our zero-tolerance and critical non-compliance requirements to all our product suppliers. If any issues that contravene these requirements are found in initial or regular audits, or at any time by Jellycat teams or third party auditors, Jellycat will hold all shipments and work with the supplier to support any individuals affected.  Corrections must be completed before production can continue. Failure to complete the required corrective actions may result in termination of business.

 

Where other non-compliances are found, we will agree corrective / remediation programmes with suppliers and manufacturing sites. These must be completed within a short timescale and where beneficial, we may engage third party support. 

 

The results from new audits are compared to results of previous audits to monitor and measure improvements.

 

Our Progress in 2024-25

All Tier 1 suppliers audited:

All of our tier 1 suppliers’ manufacturing sites underwent third-party SMETA/ ICTI audits in this 12 month period. We also extended our formal third-party audit programme to some of our key tier 2 suppliers. We reviewed the factories that supply our our promotional merchandise using existing independent SMETA audit reports. No incidents related to modern slavery or forced labour were found.

 

Updated Code of Practice:

The Jellycat Responsible Sourcing Code of Practice (JCSRCOP) has been updated to include clear information on our expectations regarding manufacturing unit approval, outsourcing, zero tolerance issues, audit and corrective action management.  This was reissued to all of our tier 1 suppliers and they have confirmed and signed this updated version.

 

New programme for enhanced assessments:

In 2024, Jellycat implemented an additional assessment programme working with LRQA (a leading global assurance partner) to assess in detail all tier 1 manufacturing units that supply Jellycat. These assessments go above and beyond our existing audit protocols to better understand how we can work with suppliers to enhance management systems and make ongoing improvements.  We have implemented detailed training programmes in one of our key tier 1 suppliers to support and strengthen the expertise in their teams.

 

Regular site visits:

Senior members of the Jellycat team have visited every manufacturing site that makes our core products. We remain committed to regular in person meetings as a key feature of the partnership between Jellycat, our suppliers and their manufacturing sites.

 

Expanded in-country teams:

We have recruited to expand our Jellycat in-country teams, to ensure we have day to day presence in all of our product suppliers’ manufacturing sites.  We have also appointed team members in Vietnam and Indonesia to focus on social and ethical compliance. The learnings and results from all audits and assessments are shared with our local teams to support training. Our local production planning teams are increasingly working in partnership with supplier production teams. This has many benefits, including giving Jellycat colleagues regular contact with staff and workers in the manufacturing sites and ongoing direct experience of their working environment. 

 

Our Future Plans

We continue to develop supporting information for suppliers as guidance to the JCRSCOP.  In addition to guidance on assessing risk of forced labour and modern slavery, this includes more information for manufacturers on our expectations for all areas of worker welfare as well as environmental and sustainability activities. 

 

Our future plans include:

1. Tier 1 suppliers: In 2025, we will continue to develop our assessment and development programme with LRQA. We will endeavour to undertake  Business Ethics and Social Compliance training with all product suppliers . Training and development programmes will be established in more key Tier 1 suppliers.

2. Key Tier 2 suppliers: We will continue to identify our key tier 2 suppliers, and work towards including them in our third-party auditing programme and LRQA assessment programme.

3. Other suppliers: We will continue to map our tier 2 suppliers and our promotional merchandise suppliers.

4. We will continue to review and update training and support information for Jellycat employees and key suppliers. We are working with LRQA and SEDEX to introduce online learning tools available in local languages for Jellycat personnel and for teams within our suppliers’ manufacturing sites.

5. We will continue to assess our policies in the areas of recruitment, whistleblowing, supply of goods and services and due diligence assessments. 

6.We will start to expand our codes of practice and audits to cover other elements of the supply chain including suppliers who provide shipping and warehouse services.

We are making good progress but recognise that we can not be complacent and must continue to look at areas of risk and deeper into further tiers of our supply chain. The whole Jellycat team is committed to accelerating this for the future.

This statement is made in reference to section 54 (1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for the financial year 2024-2025 and has been approved by the Board of Directors 

 

Arnaud Meysselle 

CEO 

July 2025