With today’s global pressures, our suppliers generally strive to achieve world-class standards in their products and systems. Like any other organization, our suppliers have areas of strength as well as improvement. In PUMA we recognize that there may not be one singular solution to resolve these concerns, as each factory context is different, even with those that belong to the same communities or the same management group. Issues such as ineffective grievance procedures and excessive hours of work have surfaced as the most critical this time but as PUMA and the sports industry as a whole rise to meet these challenges, other issues emerge and gain prominence over time. To fully grasp the challenges and issues we face in this area, it is best to consider our whole work in monitoring and remediation as explained in our Sustainability Report.
Through individual efforts with our suppliers and through partnerships along with other stakeholders, we have been working towards developing, testing and compiling solutions that address the root causes of the problems identified. In PUMA we value the initiative of our suppliers tackling these issues and the experience and honesty they bring to the table. In "Transparency in the Supply Chain" we provide a glimpse of the current conditions of our suppliers.
PUMA and GRI / GTZ Project “Transparency in the Supply Chain” - South Africa
PUMA joined forces with the German Development Agency (GTZ) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in a project in South Africa that aims at increasing transparency in the supply chain of PUMA suppliers. At the heart of the project, PUMA supports small and medium-size suppliers with issuing their own sustainability reports and therefore encouraging them to take Corporate Social Responsibility issues into their own hands.
Three core PUMA suppliers in Cape Town (
Impahla, Suzie Products) and Durban (
Vimal) are currently working on their own reports, with the support and help of external consultants who are experts for non-financial reporting and the guidelines of the GRI for Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs). Supporting SMEs in supply chains through training, workshops and resources will build capacity for SMEs to initiate and continue a reporting process, and improve sustainability management and performance.
GRI describes the nature and purpose of the project on their website: “This project intends to go beyond the current system of control. It aims to tackle the subject of sustainability based on the paradigm of mutual trust and equal business relations between buyer and supplier”.
It is well known that PUMA has strong links to African Football, after PUMA sponsored all African football teams present at the World Cup 2006 and was the leading supplier at the African Cup of Nations in January 2008, kitting out nine out of 16 teams. Through this strong connection, it was important for us to extend the project reach to the African continent through our participation.
For our suppliers, the external support of the project serves as an ideal preparation to tell their own story about their sustainability efforts in the context of the upcoming Football World Cup in 2010. Moreover, it is a good opportunity for PUMA and its suppliers to test the efficiency of other “game rules”, by introducing a bottom-up communication approach rather than the currently practiced top-down approach of supply chain auditing.
This project goes in line with PUMA´s plans to build an extended supplier base on the African continent, where a new sourcing office was opened in Cape Town at the beginning of 2008. It also complements our past and present philanthropic efforts in Africa such as supporting the campaign “Peace One Day”.
In addition to PUMA, Daimler, Otto Group and Telefonica also participate in this project and support their suppliers with issuing their own sustainability reports. While most large multinational enterprises issue some kind of CSR or sustainability report, the suppliers of these companies find it often difficult to cope with the reporting requirements of their customers and hardly issue any own communication on sustainability aspects.
| Participating PUMA Suppliers : · · Spring Romance Properties/ Impahla, Cape Town We are happy to announce that the first sustainability reports from Impahla and Vimal are ready for download. |
