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Our Ethical Values

Our Philosophy

We believe that ethical behaviour is central to the sustainability of our business. It is fundamental in earning and retaining the trust of our stakeholders, be they customers, staff, investors or the community at large, and it's an integral part of the way we do business.

Our customers lie at the heart of our strategy, and our priority is to provide them with good value products and quality service through a range of distribution channels. But it's also crucial that our customers are able to trust us to treat them fairly. We strive to earn and retain a reputation as an ethical company, and we therefore take our responsibilities towards our customers seriously by showing the highest standards of integrity in all our dealings with them.

This is dependent on the actions of every employee across the business. Therefore, we expect all employees to operate to the highest ethical standards in all aspects of their work and business relationships.

Fostering a Culture of Ethical Behaviour

As part of our commitment to ethical practice, and to fostering a culture of ethical behaviour amongst our employees, in 2004 we established a Business Ethics Working Group. This Group reports to the CSR Committee, and its role is to develop and maintain a Business Ethics Framework across the company.

The Business Ethics Framework covers the ethical standards expected of employees in their relationships with our stakeholders, to enable them to 'do the right thing' in their business dealings. The Framework also provides a means of clarification and escalation of issues.

Our induction programme also includes a section on business ethics, which sets out the standards and conduct expected throughout the company.

Progress in 2005: Embedding an Ethical Culture

• Work began on embedding an ethical dimension into the recruitment process. This will ensure that the process of assessing potential employees is transparent and there is no discrimination, that recruits meet our ethical standards and that managers themselves behave ethically during the recruitment process.
• A series of communications and training initiatives are being designed to encourage employees to identify with, and commit to, ethical conduct and company values, so that the Framework is consistently applied. To this end, four key areas are being addressed: staff behaviours at work, behaviours of colleagues, the support of the organisation and staff awareness of company policies.

Work on both initiatives will continue in 2006.

The aim of all our work in the area of ethical values is to ensure that our employees have a clearer understanding of acceptable and unacceptable conduct. We believe that the risk to our business and reputation is substantially reduced through the importance we place on ethical and responsible behaviour.

Link to 'Integrity in Business' statement