Modern Slavery Policy

This statement relates to the financial year from January 2019 to December 2019.

A much-loved children’s shoe brand, at Start-Rite Shoes we run our business responsibly. We are committed to understanding modern slavery risks across the organisation and to ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our business or our supply chain. We work hard to respect the human rights of everyone we work with and to maintain the highest ethical standards.

Founded in 1792 when James Smith opened a shop in Norwich making and selling shoes, our company has a long history. We supply customers all over the UK with the finest quality children’s shoes, as well as delivering shoes to international markets such as Australia and Singapore.

We trade in the UK, Australia and South East Asia and our suppliers are based in Europe, India and Cambodia. Start-Rite has a responsibility to be alert to and respond to risks associated with modern slavery in these locations.

We take this responsibility seriously, ensuring all factories and suppliers that we work with are audited by an independent third party. The main aims of this process is to promote rights at work, such as remuneration and working hours, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues, including Modern Slavery.

All new suppliers are rigorously checked at Start-Rite. They are required to produce an independent audit report covering key areas such as Health and Safety, working hours and practices and child labour. Where no report exists, Start-Rite will commission an independent third party audit before commencing work with the supplier.

Audit programmes highlight good working practices as well as areas of concern. Start-Rite investigates all areas of non-compliance with suppliers, working with them to agree and deliver immediate action to address all issues. We will terminate a supplier agreement where non-compliance is not rectified.

We are committed to maintaining a high level of understanding of and managing the risks of modern slavery in our supply chain and across the wider Start-Rite business. This statement has been approved by the Board of Directors at Start-Rite.