TRACEABILITY

We are in direct communication with our suppliers thanks to the ad-hoc systems we have developed in-house. These systems allow us to control all purchase orders and analyse our production performance every step of the way. To ensure our suppliers are making our products where they claim to be and under the right conditions, we carry out traceability audits.

These traceability audits assess the information provided by our suppliers and compare it with their production capacity, processes and the time it takes them to fulfil orders. In short, we verify that all of the production units they use have been formerly notified and approved.

The involvement of our buyer teams, which only work with Code of Conduct compliant suppliers, is key to this work stream. They are provided with ongoing sustainability training to keep them abreast of important issues.

If, during one of our traceability audits, we find that a given supplier has failed to declare a production unit, our sustainability and buyer teams work together to ensure the supplier addresses this situation and commits to complying with our traceability requirements. Should the supplier fail to remedy the situation or to apply the improvements demanded by Inditex, we rescind our business relationship with that supplier, a circumstance that is entered into our internal system. From that juncture on, no-body at Inditex can place an order with that supplier.

• 2,776 traceability audits performed in the last year
• 89% of compliance
• 17 suppliers black-listed for breach of traceability requirements