Our Social Compliance policy ensures social compliance across supply chains, with a focus on production sites in high-risk countries. Suppliers must meet minimum labour standards, undergo social audits and (as members of amfori) comply with the BSCI 'Code of Conduct'.

Our Two-way Supplier Code of Conduct sets out the standards of conduct for all our suppliers, including requirements relating to working conditions, human rights, the environ­ment and animal welfare. Suppliers must ensure safe working environments, fair wages and the prohibition of child labour and forced labour, and must work together transparently to bring about improvements. The document also emphasises HEMA’s own responsibility and the importance of sustainable, future-proof relationships with suppliers.

The Responsible Purchasing Strategy outlines how HEMA conducts responsible procurement, with a focus on sustainable and fair purchasing practices, future-proof relationships with suppliers, transparent agreements on production planning and payment terms, and the integration of sustainability objectives.

In our Due diligence statement, we describe how HEMA implements the OECD’s ‘Human rights and environmental due diligence guidelines’, from risk assessment to monitoring and reporting. HEMA identifies risks, draws up action plans and works with suppliers to implement improvements. Transparency and continuous improvement are key. We also outline the policy in broad terms in the ‘Organisation’ chapter.

The Grievance Mechanism Policy provides employees, suppliers and other stakeholders with a safe and accessible way to report complaints and concerns regarding abuses within the supply chain, including working conditions and human rights. HEMA bases this approach on international guidelines, such as the OECD guidelines, with the aim of identifying risks at an early stage and implementing structural improvements.

The Emergency Response Procedure sets out HEMA’s approach to serious abuses in the supply chain, such as human rights violations or environmental damage. It sets out a step-by-step plan for rapid and effective intervention, investigation and corrective action. The aim is to minimise damage, prevent recurrence, provide appropriate redress to those affected, and ensure transparency.

HEMA terminates its partnerships with suppliers in a responsible manner to minimise any negative impact on employees and communities. Our Responsible Exit Strategy is implemented in the event of a lack of improvement or serious breaches, and follows a clear step-by-step process: notification, consultation on improvement measures, a transition period, and a controlled termination.

HEMA’s Child labour policy requires suppliers to have clear protocols in place to prevent, identify and address child labour. This includes risk assessment, monitoring and remedial measures that prioritise the best interests of the child, such as access to education and family support. The policy forms part of HEMA’s broader due diligence approach and is actively shared and discussed with suppliers.

HEMA ensures fair working conditions through a development-oriented approach. Suppliers in high-risk countries are guided, step by step, towards full compliance with social standards. Their production sites are assessed against HEMA’s ‘Minimum Requirements for Social Compliance’ (MRQ-sc). This audit is carried out by an external body before the factory is permitted to supply HEMA. The factory must then comply with a recognised social standard within one year. As a member of amfori, we expect suppliers to undergo BSCI audits or comply with a comparable standard.

objective: All production sites in high-risk countries have a social compliance standard.

result: By 2025, 96.06%* of factories where HEMA has been manufacturing for more than one year as of 1 February 2026, located in one of the high-risk countries defined by HEMA, will have a valid ‘social compliance’ standard accepted by HEMA (BSCI, SA8000, Sedex/Smeta).

As a member of amfori (the organisation that manages the social compliance standard BSCI), we ask production sites that supply HEMA for more than a year to schedule a BSCI audit. In it, production sites can score an A to E, with A and B being the best scores. We monitor the scores and insights on the corresponding BSCI platform. Last year, 363 BSCI audits took place. In case of a D-score, we immediately contact the supplier to implement improvements as soon as possible. There were no E-scores in 2025.

Besides BSCI, we also accept standards that we can verify and that are equivalent in our view, such as Sedex/SMETA. We see an SA8000 certificate as a good assessment of working conditions and working conditions for a factory. With such a certificate, an MRQ social compliance audit is not necessary for this plant.

Responsible sourcing is important to HEMA. We want our suppliers to recognise HEMA as a responsible buyer. We strive to build long-term, equal partnerships with suppliers, based on mutual respect. Our responsible procurement strategy and ‘Supplier Code of Conduct’ are supported by internal training sessions, working groups and KPIs to measure progress.

In 2025, 75.6% of our suppliers with production sites in high-risk countries were long-term partners who had been supplying HEMA for more than five years. No fewer than 48.7% of these suppliers have been working with us for over ten years. These relationships form an important basis for responsible procurement and for working together to improve working and environmental conditions throughout the supply chain.

2025: We have taken significant steps to further improve our procurement practices. We conducted a supplier survey among our suppliers from various product groups and countries via our supplier newsletter. This survey was completed (anonymously) by 166 suppliers and provides valuable insights into how suppliers view our working relationship and where there is room for improvement.

The results show that HEMA is generally regarded as a responsible and reliable partner. Suppliers give us an average rating of 4.36 out of 5*. At the same time, suppliers also identify room for improvement in terms of contractual clarity, forecasting, support when they face pro­duction setbacks due to external circumstances, and prices that take into account factors such as rising labour costs in manufacturing countries.

In 2026, we will take further steps to strengthen our responsible procurement policy. Together with an external expert in the field of responsible procurement, we are working on refining and embedding our strategy in practice.

objective: By 2030, 50% of our suppliers in high-risk countries will be long-term partners (suppliers who have been supplying HEMA for more than five years).

objective: HEMA aims to ensure that, by 2030, suppliers rate us on average as a responsible purchaser with a score of at least 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.

Unfortunately, there are many people around the world who are unable to make ends meet. This also applies to employees within HEMA’s value chain. A fair wage strengthens their position and enables them and their families to provide for themselves in terms of food, education and housing. There is often a significant difference between the minimum wage and a living wage. That is why, in 2024, HEMA drew up a roadmap to work with suppliers towards fair wages.

Annefloor: “A living wage is a complex issue and cannot be resolved by a single party alone. That is why we are working together with our suppliers, other retailers and industry partners on this issue.”

HEMA is working with individual suppliers to take tangible and measurable steps towards fair pay. An understanding of pay data and any living wage gaps forms an essential basis for this. These insights help us to engage more effecti­vely with suppliers and drive improvements where they are most needed.

We use various data sources for this purpose. Audit results provide an initial picture of pay practices, but they also have their limitations: for example, they do not always use the correct living wage benchmarks and therefore sometimes provide an incomplete picture.

That is why, every year, we ask a selected group of production sites to complete the IDH Salary Matrix. This tool provides a much more relevant and detailed picture of pay structures and living wage gaps at the factory level. Based on these findings, we help suppliers identify bottlenecks and improve their pay structures.

2025: Seven factories have completed the Salary Matrix, with support from HEMA colleagues who attended an IDH training course in 2024. A living wage is also a key topic in our regular discus­sions with strategic suppliers, enabling us to continuously drive further progress. We are also rolling out capacity-building initiatives on related topics, such as social dialogue, freedom of association and working hours.

Although direct collaboration with suppliers is important for making tangible progress, HEMA believes that genuine, sustainable improvement is only possible if wage development is embedded at sector level. That is why we invest in initiatives that bring about structural change, improve procurement practices and strengthen social dialogue in producing countries.

2025: As an active member of the IDH Business Action Committee (BAC) (formerly the Steering Group), HEMA is contributing to the inter­national roadmap for a living wage. Within the BAC, we contribute insights from our supply chain, help refine strategies and encourage other companies to take action as well. This creates a broader, collective impact than individual brands can achieve on their own.

The most extensive and promising aspect of our sector-specific efforts is our recent participation in the ACT programme in Cambodia. ACT is an international partnership between brands, trade unions and manufacturers that focuses on improving wages through robust social dialogue and binding collective agreements. The ACT programme in Cambodia is the first initiative of its kind worldwide to support collective agreements through contractual arrangements with brands. The collective agreements include, among other things, a pay top-up, improved terms and conditions of employment, and additional maternity and paternity leave, which helps to promote gender equality. In addition, a Skills & Training Fund is used to finance training programmes that systematically enhance employees’ skills and career prospects.

In 2026, HEMA will work with two suppliers and factories in Cambodia to ensure that the collec­tive agreement is signed and implemented there. This means that we take part in tripartite consul­tations between manufacturers, trade unions and ACT, and that we fulfil our own commercial obligations, such as incorporating fair labour costs into purchase prices and contributing to the Skills & Training Fund. In doing so, we are not only supporting pay rises, but also the development of employees’ skills, a crucial component of the ACT model.

A well-known risk for workers in our value chain is excessive working hours, as revealed by the amfori BSCI audits. This risk is particularly high in China. We have therefore selected our Chinese suppliers with the highest number of overtime hours to work with us on drawing up improvement plans and reducing working hours.

2025: At these sites, we carried out a survey in 2025 to assess the extent of overtime and its underlying causes. In addition, a brochure has been produced for supplier management, aimed at reducing overtime and implementing structural improvement measures. The distribution of this brochure to all suppliers in China is scheduled for 2026.

Annefloor: “By taking concrete steps with suppliers, such as increasing the number of rest days, we’ve found that even small measures lead to better working hours and a healthier work-life balance.”

Freedom of association is essential for a fair supply chain. Nevertheless, workers in countries such as Bangladesh, Turkey and India are still often under pressure when they seek to make their voices heard collectively. In some cases, trade unions are actively discouraged or even obstructed, leaving workers without access to a safe and effective means of improving their working conditions.

That is why, since 2019, HEMA has been working on this issue in partnership with FNV and local partners, such as the Awaj Foundation, offering training courses to workers and management in factories in Bangladesh with a view to improving working conditions.

“We discovered that the key to a compliant factory is not just more rules, but above all better communication. By equipping both employee representatives and management with knowledge, we transformed a place of conflict into a place of cooperation,” said Md. Firoz Mahmud, CSR manager at our purchasing office in Bangladesh.

The training sessions focused on strengthening worker participation committees (employee representation) in order to promote social dialogue in the workplace. Feedback from employees indicates that trust in management has increased, particularly when it comes to raising issues and concerns. Our CSR specialist in Bangladesh has also visited factories to monitor and support the implementation of the agreements and improvement measures. We are exploring the possibilities of whether and how the programme can be rolled out in our other production countries.

2025: By 2025, we will have trained employees on trade union freedom at two of the factories where our production takes place.

objective: By 2030, 100% of our active production sites in Turkey, Bangladesh and India will have an independently elected trade union or employee representative body.

result: In 2025, this stood at 97.87%.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right. Nevertheless, women in many manufacturing countries, including China, Turkey, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, still frequently face unequal treatment in the workplace. These include lower pay for the same work, limited career prospects, discrimination during pregnancy or motherhood, and a lack of protection against harassment and violence. HEMA recognises their vital role in the supply chain and is committed to equal opportunities, recognition and protection.

objective: In 2026, a roadmap will be drawn up in collaboration with suppliers and partners to implement awareness-raising, training and policies on gender equality.

Child labour occurs in global supply chains, particularly in countries where there is poverty, limited access to education and weak enforcement of labour laws. This risk is particularly prevalent in the downstream sectors of the textile, hardware and food production industries. HEMA does not tolerate any form of child labour.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out measures to prevent child labour, and factories are audited to assess their policies and systems. Both external monitoring, through our social compliance programme, and internal monitoring, such as unannounced visits by our CSR specialists. If child labour is suspected, HEMA applies an additional policy which is available online.

2025: By 2025, we will be affiliated with the ‘Centre for Child Rights and Business’. This collaboration not only helps us to better identify and verify risks of child labour, but also to put in place effective remedial processes when actual risks or abuses come to light. The Centre provides us with practical expertise, local knowledge and guidance, enabling us to take more targeted action and strengthen our due diligence approach within our supply chain.

objective: By 2026, we will develop a roadmap to combat child labour in high-risk supply chains at the raw material level (such as cotton and mica).

Forced labour poses a risk worldwide, particularly in the lower tiers of the supply chain where oversight is often limited. HEMA expects its suppliers to implement active policies to prevent forced labour and to be transparent about their supply chain, including beyond tier 1.

2025: We have begun a targeted risk analysis based on the ‘Forced Labour Indicators’ of the International Labour Organization (ILO). This analysis helps us to better understand where the greatest risks lie and forms the basis for further action. In addition, we are conducting a gap analysis to identify where our policies and practical implementation are still falling short, and how we can further strengthen our due diligence approach in the run-up to upcoming legislation.

During audits, specific checks are carried out for signs of forced labour. Employees can use the complaints mechanism to report concerns or breaches of employment rights anonymously.

objective: To prevent forced labour deep within the supply chain, HEMA will develop a roadmap by 2026 setting out targeted actions in high-risk supply chains, focused on prevention and monitoring.

Tony’s Open Chain is an initiative striving for a transparent cocoa supply chain in which farmers receive a fair price for their cocoa. In 2023, we announced that we were joining Tony’s Open Chain. In doing so, we support Tony’s Chocolonely’s mission to source cocoa according to their five sourcing principles and thereby put an end to exploitation in the cocoa industry.

In 2025, 32.0%* of the cocoa for HEMA own-brand products (kg) (supplied in the 2025 financial year) was sourced through the Tony’s Open Chain initiative (excluding restaurant/takeaway and pastries).