primark csr case study

Supply Chain World magazine

Primark Cares: supply chain sustainability is central to the renowned retailer’s wider strategy

Mark Shirley began his career with Primark ten years ago, as Regional Operations Manager for Warehousing and Transport, with responsibility for the UK and ROI. He has since held several roles, extending to US operations, and including the conception and set-up of the business’ Central Supply Chain function.

This centralization enabled Primark’s in-house systems capabilities, including WMS, customs and automation, and a Planning and Business Intelligence function. “For the last four years,” Mark begins, “I have been the Director of Logistics, and my focus has been to ensure that supply chain and logistics don’t act as a brake on business growth. This focus has taken the form of a ten-year strategic plan to not only increase our capability but also facilitate agility and flexibility across our operational base. Of course, this also includes the day-to-day management of safety, cost and service that all depot operators are familiar with.”

Doing better, every day

Alongside improving its internal efficiencies, the organization is committed to doing better, every day, to reduce its impact on the planet and improve the lives of workers.

“We have energy management plans across our depots to ensure we operate as efficiently as possible,” Mark explains. “In our new depots, we are implementing a range of sustainability features. For example, at our Newbridge facility in Ireland which is currently under construction, the building has been designed to comply with ‘Nearly Zero Emission Building’ statutory rules, which became effective in the ROI at the beginning of 2021. This is required as the minimum for planning permission, however, we are significantly exceeding this standard through implementation of a number of sustainable features. “We carefully consider the layout of our depots to minimize heating and lighting requirements. Automated areas, for example, only need frost protection. In manned areas, we maximize natural light, use LED lighting elsewhere, and incorporate air source heat pumps.

“Our buildings use superior quality materials with increased levels of insulation. A sophisticated Building Management System delivers energy monitoring to measure and alert major uses and consumption by means of granular reporting. We harvest rainwater to reduce consumption, employ a leak detection system for early alerting, and manage water runoff with Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). Alongside these measures, photovoltaic panels are installed to reduce primary electrical inputs, and our auxiliary buildings incorporate green roof technology.

“We also have electric car charging points to reduce transport energy usage, and engage with local councils to initiate the relocation of bus stops to immediately outside our facilities, thereby encouraging our colleagues to use public transport. Any fallow land is landscaped into wildflower meadow areas. This enhances biodiversity and acts as an amenity area for colleagues,” Mark enthuses, and is keen to highlight that a further significant sum has been ring-fenced for investment in additional sustainability and wellbeing improvements.

Sustainability strategy

“We employ the biggest vehicle capacity permissible to reduce our number of journeys. The UK uses retail double-deckers with a capacity of 52 pallets, which is double the volume of a standard trailer. For movement of goods to our strategic outbase locations, we have special licenses in place to use extended semi-trailers, capable of carrying 60 pallets in total. In Europe, due to transport law and vehicle height restrictions, we are unable to make the double-deckers any larger.”

In 2021, Primark unveiled its wide-reaching sustainability strategy, Primark Cares. This encompasses the organization’s promise to reduce fashion waste, halve carbon emissions across its value chain and improve the lives of the people who make the products. It is a commitment to changing the way its clothes are made without changing their affordable prices, thereby enabling everyone to make more sustainable choices when shopping.

Mark elaborates: “Primark is using its global scale and reaching across its entire business to action the new Primark Cares commitments which are divided into three key pillars. The first being to give our clothing a longer life. Our clothes will be recyclable by design, made of recycled or sustainably sourced materials and they will last for longer. By building on small-scale trials in denim, we will look to introduce these principles across all clothing, so that all items can be recycled at the end of their life.

“Today, clothing made from recycled or sustainable materials accounts for one quarter, by 2030, we are aiming for all clothing. This will include only using sustainable, recyclable or organic cotton by 2027, as we expand the Primark Cares Sustainable Cotton program, already the largest of its kind in the fashion industry. All items will also be put through more rigorous testing to ensure clothing is made to last.

“The second pillar focuses on protecting life on the planet. We aim to halve carbon emissions across the entire value chain by 2030, building on the commitment already made, as a signatory of the United Nations’ Fashion Charter (UNFCCC), to get to 30 percent, including Scope 3 emissions. We pledge to remove all single-use plastic from across the business and operations. Alongside this, we will work with farmers and producers as part of the Primark Cares Sustainable Cotton program to provide training in regenerative farming techniques that help to deliver more positive impacts on soil health, biodiversity and water quality.

“Lastly, we are working to enhance the lives of the people who make our clothes, by paying a fair wage to pursuing a living wage in all the countries where Primark operates. We commissioned and funded research with the Anker Research Institute to provide new or updated Global Living Wage Coalition estimates for four of our sourcing markets: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Turkey and Vietnam. This means that Primark will, for the first time, have robust and credible living wage benchmarks for a number of sourcing markets. This information is key to enable us to develop and pilot initiatives to bring about real wage growth across our supply chain, including being able to track factories’ performance against the benchmarks.

Ground-breaking goals

“As a business, we care about the welfare of all workers and recognise that we have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure they have a safe place to work, and their rights are respected in the workplace. We will also provide support with financial literacy training and access to social protection for workers by 2030, alongside promoting equal opportunities for women across the supply chain through workplace skills and development, focusing on barriers to promotion and progression. For example, in three of our sourcing markets, we are giving workers the chance to attend training on wages and payslips and increase their financial literacy.

“Women account for the majority of our global supplier factory workforce; this number is estimated at around 320,000. Our goal is to strengthen the position of women in the garment industry through skills development and addressing barriers to progression by 2030. We are also a founding member of Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT); a ground-breaking agreement between trade unions, global brands and retailers who are working to transform the garment, textile and footwear industry and achieve living wages for workers,” he states.

Mark goes on to explain how the organization is planning to deliver some of these goals. “We will measure the percentage of waste diverted from landfill. Lots of different categories across the business have embraced this drive, swapping out plastic for cardboard or in some cases removing the packaging all together and using table displays instead of hanging. Something as simple as taking the plastic hooks out of our socks and tights packaging has removed 16 tonnes of single-use plastic and we have also re-designed the packaging for our bras, accessories and headphones using the same approach. As a result, the packaging is now fully recyclable using FSC backing card. The redesign will remove approximately 38.3 tonnes of non-recyclable PVC clam pack and non-FSC METPOL card. We’ve made good progress so far. For example, we have established a Centre of Excellence to look closely at our packaging and explore ways to reduce it. We believe we’ve removed nearly 600 million units of single-use plastic since 2019 but we are working to establish a clear baseline so we can fully measure our future reduction.”

Championing equality

From relationships with the wider environment to partnerships nearer home, Mark believes that closer is better. “Taking third-party logistics partners as an example, we now want to provide longer term contracts. This offers an improved platform from which our partners can invest and align closer to our strategic goals and requirements. Shorter term contracts drive a transactional approach which may work for a limited time but if you wish to drive real synergy then I truly believe longer terms facilitate this. Maintaining these relationships is the same as for any relationship in my opinion: openness, honesty and becoming as transparent as possible. My personal preference is face-to-face meetings, as they help to foster improved personal relationships, which also helps,” he outlines.

Staying with the people side of the business, Mark cites examples of how Primark champions equality throughout the supply chain. “At the start of our chain we have female cotton farmers. To date, we have trained around 252,800 farmers in our sustainable cotton program and plan to extend this to 275,000 by the end of 2023. In addition, almost 3000 of those farmers have participated in a pilot for more regenerative farming practices, thereby enhancing the crop yield and increasing the farmers’ revenue.

Supply chain agility

“Closer to home, the business has set up Colleague Networks with a focus on neuro, disability, and cultural diversity, alongside gender, life stages, and LGBTQIA+.” Employee welfare is a priority for Primark, as Mark elaborates. “In terms of driver recruitment and retention, we operate to high standards, opting to use new and quality fleet vehicles, paying a competitive wage and having good facilities in all depots for our drivers. As such, we’re not experiencing driver shortages to the extent of some organizations. That said, the industry is facing an ageing workforce and it is a challenge to attract new drivers into the sector. Driver welfare is at the heart of everything we do. We operate on flexible hours schemes and heavily promote the recruitment of women drivers into the industry.”

Looking ahead, Mark reflects on the logistics sector as a whole. “We have experienced an unprecedented level of disruption in recent years. Labor constraints are likely to continue, although they could be less acute than in previous years as companies have taken the measure to digitize and automate wherever they can. That said, supply chain agility across geographies will be a focus of mine and many others, as I expect disruption to be a constant for the next few years. Alongside this I am seeing greater collaboration between companies, even competitors, to help achieve goals and drive efficiency. I am hopeful that the focus on supply chains as a result of the pandemic and its subsequent disruptions will remain in business leaders’ minds and that they continue to see supply chains as a competitive advantage.

“We are extremely lucky to work for a business that continues to grow both in existing markets but also into new ones. Personally, in three-to-five years’ time, I would like us to be firmly established as a recognized brand across the whole of the US.

“The Primark supply chain future is one of expansion and implementing further automated depots to service our growing store base whilst retro-fitting existing facilities to enhance their capabilities. The environment is key,” he concludes, “while current geopolitical tensions have impacted our alternative fuel operations, we continue to do the right thing across Europe and the UK. We have a huge change agenda to deliver over the next few years, but I am extremely honored to lead a team as talented as ours.”

www.primark.com

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Sustainably-conscious consumers' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards the fast fashion industry: A Case of Primark

This study uses in-depth semi-structured interviews with sustainably-conscious consumers in order to explore what influences their decision-making process in regards to fast fashion. Primark is used as a case study in order to contextualise the argument and interview data. Thematic analysis is used to uncover and analyse the following themes and subthemes: Perception (Consumers, Environment; and Overseas Community), Attitude (Guilt) and Behaviour (Alternatives; and Overconsumption). The findings aim to explore patterns and connections between sustainably-conscious consumers perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards fast fashion brands, and how they relate to Primark’s CSR practices.

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Primark: Hitting the Mark on Addressing Climate Change

Climate change is forcing fast fashion retailers like Primark to confront the environmental implications of their supply chain.

Fast fashion supply chain criticized for lack of sustainability

Although lesser known in the US than its “fast fashion” counterparts including Zara and H&M, Primark is a significant player in the global clothing industry. This industry – whose production doubled between 2000 and 2014 – has been the focus of much criticism from environmentalists [1]. A subsidiary of Associated British Foods, Primark is known for having some of the lowest prices in the fast fashion space, achieved through a flexible supply network comprised of global “large scale and long-term contracting and sub-contracting” [2].

Companies like Primark have come under fire because of the environmental impact of their supply chain and of their products. With its vast manufacturing and shipping network to supply its stores located mostly in Europe and in the US, Primark’s water consumption grew by 6%, GHG emissions grew by 15%, and energy consumption grew by 21% between just 2014-2016 [3]. Clothing also accounted for 4.4% of total waste in the US in 2013, more than double its share in 1990, an increase that fast fashion has undoubtedly contributed to [4].

Primark is committed to reducing environmental impact of its supply chain

Although Primark has historically been “relatively quiet in terms of what it does [for] sustainability,” management at the company has started to act in recent years to mitigate the contributions of Primark’s supply chain to climate change. They are focused on 3 specific strategies:

Pathways to Just Digital Future

• Full traceability of the product supply chain
• Environmental, health and safety compliance in all direct and indirect operations
• Improved environmental performance of products and raw materials [5]

In the short term, this has meant focusing on the sustainability of Primark’s stores. Primark has achieved the Carbon Trust Energy Standard and the Carbon Trust Standard for Waste for its in-store practices [3]. The company has also become “more actively involved in the recycling process of its materials” to “significantly reduce the volume and frequency of waste collections at each store” [3]. Moreover, the company has joined forces with industry collaborators like the ZDHC Foundation, the Leather Working Group, and the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to work together to improve practices [5].

In the medium term, more of Primark’s sustainable supply chain strategies will materialize. Management has set a multi-year roadmap to achieve “zero use and discharge of hazardous chemicals” (see graphic below) [5]. As a part of this endeavor, Primark is equipping suppliers with a Chemical Management Toolkit and asking them to commit to Primark’s zero use goals. As of May 2017, 70% of suppliers had committed to Primark’s goals and 100% had designated a responsible chemical manager [5].

Source: [5]

Primark has also received much positive press for its long-term cotton sustainability strategy. Although it purchases no cotton directly, it has “set a long-term ambition to ensure all the cotton in its supply chain is sustainably sourced” [6]. In 2013, it began a 3-year engagement with CottonConnect to empower rural women in India to adopt more sustainable cotton farming practices [7]. The program trained 1,251 women and was so successful that Primark decided in 2016 to scale up the initiative to train 10,000 more women over the next 6 years [6].

… but is Primark doing enough?

It is not clear, however, that Primark is taking sufficient action to address the sustainability issues in its supply chain. Most importantly, Primark has yet to take significant measures to reduce its GHG emissions, which grew by 15% over the last 3 years [3]. As Primark further expands its footprint in America, GHG emissions will likely continue to grow with increased transportation costs. The company should consider shifting more transportation to using renewable energy or should purchase carbon offsets.

Much of Primark’s supply chain concerns regarding climate change have to do with mitigating Primark’s impact. It does not seem from the literature available that Primark’s management is concerned with adapting its supply chain to climate change. For example, on the product front, Primark should consider its selection and timing of warm weather versus cold weather clothing in light of changing weather patterns. On the sourcing front, Primark’s executives need be mindful of climate change vulnerabilities in countries, like Bangladesh, from where it sources [3,8].

Although Primark has made great strides to improve the environmental impact of its supply chain in recent years, the question remains as to how committed management really is to these initiatives. Why has management resisted setting targets for many of the environmental initiatives? Why was management so quiet about sustainability efforts for so long?

Regardless, the onus is equally on the consumer as it is on management. Despite the benefits provided by affordable, fast fashion, consumers must be aware of the environmental impact of the fast fashion supply chain.

(788 words)

[ 1] “Looking Good Can Be Extremely Bad for the Environment”, The Economist, (April 8, 2017), https://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21720200-global-clothing-production-doubled-between-2000-and-2014-looking-good-can-be

[2] Ivanov, D., Tsipoulanidis, A., Schonberger, J., “Operations and Supply Chain Strategy” in Global Supply Chain and Operations Management: A Decision-Oriented Introduction to the Creation of Value, (Springer International Publishing, 2017), pg. 72

[3] Hendriksz, V., “A Closer Look at Primark’s Stance on Responsible Fashion”, FashionUnited, (April 20, 2017), https://fashionunited.uk/primark-sustainability

[4] “Faster, Cheaper Fashion”, The Economist, (September 5, 2015), https://www.economist.com/news/business/21663221-rapidly-rising-super-cheap-irish-clothes-retailer-prepares-conquer-america-rivals-should

[5] “Primark Environmental Performance Report 2017”, Primark, (May 17, 2017), https://www.primark.com/~/media/ourethics/detox/pdfs/detox-report/primark-environmental-performance-report_2017.ashx

[6] “Helping to inform Primark’s long-term ambition to ensure all the cotton in its supply chain is sourced sustainably and addressing some of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, while making a meaningful difference to women cotton farmers and their families”, CottonConnect.org, http://cottonconnect.org/portfolio-posts/primark-sustainable-cotton-case-study/

[7] Sit, S., “Profits rise for Primark’s female cotton farmers”, Cips.org, (February 10, 2017),  https://www.cips.org/en/supply-management/news/2017/february/profits-rise-for-female-cotton-farmers-working-with-primark-/

[8] Glennon, R., “The Unfolding Tragedy of Climate Change in Bangladesh”, Scientific American, (April 21, 2017), https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-unfolding-tragedy-of-climate-change-in-bangladesh/

Student comments on Primark: Hitting the Mark on Addressing Climate Change

Great post and interesting to learn what Primark is doing to address sustainability issues in its supply chain. Given fast-fashion retailers like H&M, Primark, and Zara are under pressure to get products to market quickly and inexpensively to consumers, these companies have tended to be the worst in terms of ensuring products are being made in a sustain way. It is becoming more common for these stores to set up a task force to address sustainability issues, buts its often difficult to integrate new ideas into business processes and enact real change. One change H&M has made is to allow encourage customers to bring old clothes to the store where H&M then handles the recycling. I wonder if the industry could consolidate an only work with distributors and suppliers who maintain high quality standards when it comes to sustainability. Companies in the fishing industry and diamond industry have been somewhat successful in doing so.

Thanks for writing this! I think that It’s interesting to think about what motivates companies to “go green” and whether it’s a PR play, genuine concern for the environment, or fear that by contributing to global warming, they are depleting their own supply. I was particularly intrigued by your note on sustainably sourcing cotton and did a bit of research into how cotton supply is being impacted by climate change (good article here: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-climate-change-material-cotton-industry ). It talks about what some companies are doing to reduce their reliance on raw cotton. Levi, for example, created jeans from recycled T-shirts. And companies like Patagonia and Eileen Fischer are encouraging customers to hang onto clothing longer (consequently reducing sales but potentially increasing CLV?) and providing instructions on how to repair damages. I’m curious to see what the future holds for innovation from Primark and other retailers.

Thank you for the insightful article, Shelby. It prompted me to think of issues in fashion that I rarely consider as a consumer, and you illustrated the challenges Primark is facing in implementing more sustainable operations. You referenced the fact that Primark has understated their sustainability efforts in the media, which prompted me to wonder why they choose not to publicize the changes they are making.

In theory, a company like Primark could take their sustainability efforts one step further by educating their consumers on their philosophy and urging customers to make purchasing decisions that are best for the environment. This would hopefully create a virtuous cycle in which companies develop and market sustainable operations, customers demand sustainably made clothes and purchase accordingly, and sustainable companies have more capital to invest in sustainability initiatives. The key to setting this pattern in motion is articulating the operational changes to current and potential customers: however, experts note that potentially boring and/or inaccessible messaging alienate an audience ( https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Promoting_Sustain_Behavior_Primer.pdf ). Primark could start to educate consumers about their efforts by leveraging their fascinating engagement with CottonConnect, and over time introduce information about more complicated operational changes to their marketing. Hopefully, Primark will continue to pursue sustainable practices in their supply chain, which will transform their supply chain partners and set the tone for industry-wide changes.

Thanks for a great post, @scolby! I agree with @aportland that we rarely think about these issues from the consumer perspective so this was an extremely relevant post.

Primark’s supply chain issues remind me closely of IKEA’s, specifically in terms of the dual impact of the supply side and the demand side. During the IKEA case, we discussed how the company could dramatically increase consumers’ willingness and ability to recycle by investing in convenient infrastructure. I believe Primark’s focus on soft goods (vs. IKEA’s furniture-heavy business) enables it to establish this infrastructure more easily and cheaply. You mention in your post that Primark has increased waste collection at its retail locations, but I wonder if it could have more of an impact by enabling recycling at a broader variety of locations. This could be an area where partnering with other fashion retailers, particularly fast fashion retailers with similar product lifetimes, would create a meaningful scale benefit: if Zara, H&M, and Primark partnered to create a clothing recycling infrastructure, they could collectively offer many more drop-off points and increased convenience to the consumer. This would in turn increase the availability of recycled materials on the supply side and allow Primark to reduce its reliance on costly raw materials that often have to be transported from distant locations, thereby decreasing the company’s negative impact in secondary ways.

Thanks for the post Shelby! It’s great to hear about companies like Primark that are not usually in the media spotlight for these sorts of issues. You brought up the point that the commitment to sustainability is equally on consumers as it is on company management. I wonder whether Primark could be more explicit about where its products are sourced from – and educate their customers in-store. One company that comes to mind is Eberjay ( https://www.eberjey.com/ ). Although it’s an e-commerce play, the company has made ‘customer education’ on sustainability issues part of its core value proposition, while at the same time, maintaining (relatively) low prices. Perhaps Primark could learn something from them about consumer education and willingness to pay? Transparency in their supply chain may seem risky, but I think consumers would appreciate a move like this from a mass-market brand.

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IESE Insight

No bells, no whistles: the simple case of Primark

In the wake of the economic crisis, low prices have taken precedence over perceived quality. In the U.K. and Ireland, this is known as "the Primark effect," so named after the bargain retailer there. A case study by Julián Villanueva, José Luis Nueno and Julie Ziskind analyzes how Primark changed brand attitudes, and the challenges that lie ahead.

The "fast fashion" retail model pioneered by companies such as Zara and H&M has been taken a step farther by Primark, the U.K. and Irish retailer offering clothes at rock-bottom prices. IESE's Julián Villanueva , José Luis Nueno and Julie Ziskind examine the secrets of Primark's success in a new case study.

Consumer habits have changed significantly since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. "Value" takes priority over snobby attitudes about labels and brands. This development has been termed "the Primark effect," in honor of the company that has earned a nationwide reputation for bargain shopping.

The ability of the chain to sell jeans for £3 or flip-flops for £1 is due to the store's "no bells, no whistles" business model, built around three cores.

1. Efficient Supply Chain, Rapid Turnover

Like many of their competitors, Primark's strategy is heavily rooted in using private labels.

However, unlike Zara's focus on style, or H&M's general affordability, Primark's niche is its rock-bottom prices. Costs are kept low by making cheap garments from man-made materials, using cheap production processes.

There is also limited reordering of products, as they operate on a "when it's gone, it's gone" basis.

This results in frequent visits from customers, as the average store turnover is six weeks.

2. Limited Operating Costs

As Primark's main selling point is price, the company must forgo expensive advertising almost completely, instead relying on "big bags and big savings" to convey their message. They also place their cheapest items at the front of the store, attracting passing trade and word of mouth.

Primark stores tend to be in shopping malls outside of downtown, further reducing costs through lower rents.

Finally, staff service is focused primarily on managing checkout lines and managing showroom inventory. Quality of service may suffer, but the low costs are enough to satisfy a certain breed of consumer.

3. Large Stores

Since 2001, when it built a 100,000-square-foot store in Manchester, Primark has focused primarily on large stores to encourage volume shopping. Floor space has tripled in the past decade, resulting in higher sales densities.

Faced with the task of organizing these larger stores, Primark has hired interior designers to outfit them with innovative floor layouts and color plans to facilitate efficient shopping.

Future Challenges

To consolidate and expand its presence on Main Street, Primark must address three major challenges.

• International Expansion. Primark's impact on the retail scene is undeniable. Yet its expansion strategy outside the United Kingdom and Ireland has been surprisingly prudent. Admittedly, European stores have experienced problems when moving outside their domestic markets, particularly due to subtle differences in culture and shopping patterns.That said, Primark does have 20 stores in Spain and a growing presence in Germany — a country that one report claims could support at least 110 stores.
• Model Modification. The ongoing impact of the financial crisis and the changing status of shopping as entertainment could see changes in Primark's strategy. Smaller stores in city centers aimed at impulse buyers may be profitable options worth pursuing.The company must also consider whether to enter online retailing, as the prevalence of this option among their rivals may threaten their future profitability.
• Corporate Responsibility. Primark's supply chain has come under scrutiny ever since an activist group revealed that Primark goods sourced from Bangladesh did not comply with child labor laws. Although Primark immediately apologized and cut ties with those suppliers, it has continued to draw fire over its supply-chain practices. Analysts say that Primark's low gross margins prove that it is Primark taking the brunt of the low prices, not the suppliers. Yet, despite attempts to address the problem, the story continues to provoke occasional bad press.

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The ethics of Primark have been scrutinised more than maybe any other fast fashion brand. Its low prices were a revelation on the high street when it launched as ‘Penneys’ in 1969 and it continues to sell at rock-bottom prices today.

What makes Primark’s low prices possible?

We examine the true cost of the Primark label, and instances where workers, the environment and other animals have paid the real price for budget clothing.

Is Primark ethical?

Our research highlights several ethical issues with Primark, including environmental reporting, pollution and toxics, workers' rights, animal rights, animal testing, use of controversial technologies, anti-social finance and likely use of tax avoidance strategies.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Primark’s overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe .

If we just looked at Primark’s policies it would appear to have a reasonably robust approach to workers’ rights. 

For example, Primark displayed good transparency by listing all of the 28 countries it sourced from, and listing factory names, on its company website. It also had a strong supply chain policy, with its Code of Conduct translated into 40 languages and assuring payment of a living wage. Primark stated that it audited suppliers at least once per year, and paid for these audits. As Primark met most of the key requirements in our lengthy Supply Chain Management rating it received our best rating for its policy.

However, there have been allegations that Primark has failed to live up to its policies.

In 2019 the Christian Initiative Romero (CIR) issued a report stating that it had interviewed 73 Sri Lankan employees from six named supplier factories to Primark. It stated that none of these met the retailer’s code of conduct, and some were involved in breaches of local law.

Primark was poorly reviewed in the 2019 Tailored Wages UK report published by Labour Behind the Label. It claimed Primark showed no evidence of workers being paid a living wage and said “Primark should sign a legally-binding, enforceable agreement with worker representatives to deliver a living wage”. 

Primark was also criticised in an article on the Business & Human Rights website dated December 2017, for failing to pay the legal minimum wage in the UK after deducting money from staff salaries to pay for uniforms.

What’s more, Primark is owned by Associated British Foods (it is the group’s most successful business division). Associated British Foods had operations in 11 oppressive regimes and did not provide factory names. Primark was therefore marked down under our Human Rights category. 

Primark lost a whole mark under our Animal Rights category. 

Primark retails leather. Due to the company operating over 350 stores in 11 countries, it lost a whole mark under the Animal Rights category as leather was considered to form a substantial part of its business.

It also lost half a mark for Animal Testing. Although it stated that animal testing wasn’t permitted on Primark products, it retailed cosmetics from other brands and provided no assurances related to whether these were tested on animals. 

If we look at Primark’s corporate family tree the animal rights issues become more apparent. 

Its parent company, Associated British Foods , raised and slaughtered pigs. It also sold eggs, stating  "We are committed to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs for our UK grocery brands by 2025." This was taken to mean that hens were being caged for the company’s products at the time of writing. 

Another company in the corporate family tree is Fortnum and Mason . This company sold foie gras, an extremely cruel process in which ducks and geese are violently abused with pipes forced down their throats (sometimes puncturing their throats).

George Weston Foods also sold factory farmed meat under the brand Don.

Environment

Primark received our worst rating for Environmental Reporting. It showed some positive intentions, but often lacked detail needed to assure its claims. 

For example, Primark appeared to understand what its key areas of environmental impact were, such as chemical management, sustainable cotton, energy efficiency, transport and GHG emissions. However, it had no quantified or dated environmental reduction targets to address these issues. 

The Primark website section ‘Sourcing Raw Materials’ stated that the company was working with CottonConnect and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to create the ‘Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme’. It claimed that this programme trained female farmers in “sustainable farming methods to improve their income” and said it helped farmers use less water and chemicals. However, it didn’t clarify what it meant by ‘sustainable farming methods’ or  define ‘less water and chemicals’. . 

Primark prohibits use of Phthalates and Triclosanand was listed by Greenpeace as in 'Evolution' mode. It was also a ZDHC signatory . 

In 2018 Primark executives George Weston and John Bason were paid £3.8m and £2.7m respectively. Ethical Consumer considered remuneration over £1 million to be excessive. The company therefore lost half a mark under Anti-Social Finance.

Primark also received our worst rating for likely use of tax avoidance strategies. Its parent company Associated British Foods had at least six high risk subsidiaries in jurisdictions on Ethical Consumer’s tax haven list, including holding companies in Luxembourg, Mauritius and Hong Kong.

Primark also had no policy against the use of GM crops, so it was considered likely that some of its clothing contained GM cotton.

Company information

Company address:.

• Annual revenue: £7,400,000,000
• Website: https://www.primark.co.uk

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Blog | Insights

Herproject: a perspective from primark.

Note: This is the second blog in a three-part series highlighting the impact of HERproject in Bangladesh. The first blog explored impacts within and beyond factory walls through the stories of HERproject peer educators. This blog shares a participating brands’ perspective on health and business impacts she has seen, and the third blog profiles one of our NGO partners.

Rehana is the managing director of a medium-sized factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, producing for Primark. When we introduced HERproject to her factory almost a year ago, she was unconvinced, viewing it as “just another project.” As our industry moves beyond auditing, Rehana’s opinion is not uncommon. For many factory managers, complaints of “project fatigue” have replaced those of “audit fatigue.”

But last month, as I stood in Rehana’s factory, it felt like a very different picture. Rehana’s team had conducted its own return-on-investment study, highlighting an incredible 50 percent reduction in absenteeism and worker turnover. Overhead costs for cleaning factory toilets and floors had fallen. Communication had improved. Productivity had increased. Workers were using personal protective equipment. One afternoon, as we gathered at the factory, Rehana signed a memorandum of understanding with a local company to supply sanitary napkins to the factory, allowing the women to purchase them at a reduced price.

When we returned to the UK, Rehana emailed us with more news: She had employed a female doctor who would be responsible for managing HERproject. The trainings were now mandatory for her factory and would continue after the project had ended.

Interestingly, compliance overall at this factory has also improved. While I think we should be wary of attributing this directly to the HERproject, the correlation between improved workplace communications/relationships and factory compliance is strong and makes for a convincing argument.

Another person who sticks in my mind from our trip to Bangladesh is Kulsum Habiba, a quality inspector who became a peer educatorat another factory in Dhaka. She’s confident, bright, and articulate about what she has learned through HERproject and the impacts she has seen in her factory and in her local community.

At a HERproject convening this month, Habiba stood, took the microphone, and challenged factory managers to formally recognise peer educators through certification, compensation, and career opportunities.

What I like about both these stories is that the two women involved had taken action. They were from different social backgrounds, and they worked in very different roles within their respective factories, but if the HERproject is about empowering women to stand, find their voice, and take action on their own terms, then both these women can serve as great role models for how the HERproject can enable long-term, home-grown success.

Originally posted on 2012 February 17 at https://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/blog-view/herproject-a-perspective-from-primark . #bangladesh , #blog , #herproject

Back to the Insights List

Libby Annat , Senior Ethical Trade Manager, Primark

Empowered Women, Dignified Work, Better Business

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Our mission.

To unlock the full potential of women working in global supply chains through workplace-based interventions on health, financial inclusion, and gender equality.

About HERproject™

BSR's HERproject™ is a collaborative initiative that strives to empower low-income women working in global supply chains.

Bringing together global brands, their suppliers, and local NGOs, HERproject™ drives impact for women and business via workplace-based interventions on health, financial inclusion, and gender equality. Since its inception in 2007, HERproject™ has worked in more than 1,000 workplaces across 17 countries and has increased the well-being, confidence, and economic potential of more than 1,225,000 women and 775,000 men.

About BSR™

BSR is a sustainable business network and consultancy focused on creating a world in which all people can thrive on a healthy planet. With offices in Asia, Europe, and North America, BSR provides its 300+ member companies with insight, advice, and collaborative initiatives to help them see a changing world more clearly, create long-term value, and scale impact.

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Our Standards

We’re going to make it possible to buy better – to give Primark customers the opportunity to make more sustainable choices at a price they can afford.

To do this, we are threading sustainability through our own operations and across our supply chains. We also want to make it easier for everyone to see what a more sustainable approach looks like in the products we sell and in how we do business.

To help us achieve this we’ve put policies and procedures in place to ensure that our suppliers meet our high standards. And that if issues or concerns arise, they’re quickly brought to our attention.

Our Supplier Code of Conduct

Our Supplier Code of Conduct is the backbone of our Ethical Trade and Environmental Sustainability Programme. This robust set of requirements forms a key part of the Primark terms and conditions of trade.

We don’t own any of the factories that make the products we sell, but we’re very selective about who we work and we only do so if they agree to standards set out in our Supplier Code of Conduct. These standards must be met in every site producing products for Primark and we have rigorous processes in place to check that they are upheld.

The 13 clauses in our Supplier Code of Conduct cover a range of issues including our zero-tolerance approach to child labour and bribery, workers’ rights to form a trade union and ensuring people don’t work excessive hours. It also includes our expectation that every factory supplying Primark is maintaining appropriate environmental practices.

Each factory has to be approved by our Ethical Trade team, before any orders are placed, and only if the required standards are met. Once approved, it’s the job of this team, a group of more than 130 experts on the ground in our key sourcing markets that carry out around 2,500 social audits every year and monitor ongoing compliances. Working with a small number of carefully selected third parties, our teams audit every factory at least once a year, sometimes more, to check whether international standards are being met. Where issues are found, the team will engage with suppliers and their factories to support with remediation to help them find solutions, training and setting up collaborative projects to protect and promote worker welfare.

We’ve been a member of the UK Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) since 2006. The ETI Base Code, which is founded on the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and is an internationally recognised code of labour practice, forms the basis of the Primark Supplier Code of Conduct.

Our Commitment to Supporting Human Rights in our Supply Chains

As a business, we care about the welfare of the thousands of people in our supply chains. We know that we have a responsibility to respect human rights and we take that responsibility very seriously.

Our commitment to the environment

Becoming a more sustainable business is a journey and we’re not starting from scratch. But we know we need to go a lot further and a big part of that is about reducing the impact our business has on the planet.

We have a global team of environmental sustainability experts who work directly with our suppliers and their factories, and in partnership with external organisations.

Our   Environmental Policy   sets out our environmental intentions and outlines our commitment to sustainability. It explains our expectations that our products are manufactured in a more sustainable way. This means responsible sourcing of raw materials, such as cotton.

We believe in honest, open communication

We proudly promote, and aim to protect, a culture of openness, honesty and inclusion. We are committed to providing confidential channels to ensure that colleagues and workers can report anything they believe to be inappropriate, improper, dishonest, illegal or dangerous.

Colleagues working directly for Primark in any country where we have stores and in any capacity and Primark shareholders, agents, contractors, external consultants, third-party representatives, business partners and sponsors should use our Speak Up mechanism, which can be accessed anytime online or by phone. Primark’s Speak Up Policy can be found here .

All workers (such as full-time workers, part-time or fixed-term workers, casual or agency workers, home workers, secondees, trainees or volunteers) and suppliers throughout Primark’s supply chain and people who live by the sites which make Primark products should use our Tell Us mechanism, which can be accessed anytime online, via an app or by phone. Details on how to access the Tell Us mechanism are set out in our Tell Us Policy, which can be found here .

We want people to feel safe at work

Our highest priority is to keep workers safe. Since 2013 we’ve implemented a structural integrity programme. This helps us to identify potential risks in countries where building standards are not implemented properly, these factory building surveys are undertaken against country-specific national standards.

We undertake comprehensive and rigorous factory building surveys for all of our first and second tier sites in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia and we also provide ad hoc support as needed in other sourcing countries . If these identify areas that require improvement we work with a team of structural and civil engineers from international engineering firms, including Mott MacDonald and Aecom, to provide factories with technical support and guidance to remedy any issues identified.

Find out more about the various standards we hold our business and our suppliers to below.

Risk identification and action

We continuously conduct due diligence to identify risks across our business. The process we use is the result of in-depth benchmarking and consultation with human rights organisations. It aligns with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector.

Our approach consists of four main components:

1. COUNTRY RISK ASSESSMENTS:

We conduct research using existing external reports and publicly available, credible information sources to build assessments for every country we source from. This includes political, economic, social and legal analysis and risk-mapping. Assessments look at both the garment and footwear sector as well as additional sectors and industries. This helps us to:

Build a comprehensive picture of the risks in each country in our supply chains, including some of the most salient risks, such as forced and child labour.

Understand the deeper root causes of these risks.

Identify key stakeholders and initiatives working on these issues that we can engage with and learn from.

2. ANALYSIS FROM PRIMARK INTERNAL DATA:

Our local Ethical Trade and Environmental Sustainability teams are one of our most important resources – they’re our ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground. Our team of over 130 local experts, based in our major sourcing countries, were recruited from a range of different organisations including other companies, development agencies and civil society.

The teams are responsible for monitoring the supply chains to ensure our workplace standards and policies are being met and for helping our supply chains to better prevent and manage risk. They’re able to engage directly with workers in our supply chains and our external partners and experts on the ground.

We’re also able to draw from intelligence and analysis of over 37,000 audits conducted on Primark’s suppliers since 2007, which are held in our central audit database.

3. STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION:

External stakeholders are a vital source of information and guidance. They help us understand the risks in our supply chains, how to identify them, and which groups may be most vulnerable. Their insight and knowledge is invaluable.

External stakeholders also assist in the development of strategies and approaches to prevent or resolve issues. Stakeholders can include civil society groups, trade unions, governments, international agencies, intergovernmental agencies, multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) and legal experts.

We’re an active member of a number of industry collaborations. We were one of the founding members of the ACT initiative on living wages in 2015; have been a member of the UK Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) since 2006; and were one of the first brands to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh following the Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013.

We care about the livelihoods of the people who make our products. We’ve worked really hard with our suppliers in the last ten years to improve the factories we use in terms of working conditions, treatment of workers and pay.

We follow and support legislation to address risks across the garment industry and are supportive of such measures. We took part in UK Government consultations on the development of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and provided feedback and insights from our programme. As the UK is due to review its modern slavery strategy in 2021, we will continue to provide relevant information and support.

We’ve also engaged with the UK Government’s Environmental Audit Committee, as well as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department of Foreign Affairs Committee, to feed into their inquiries and identify focus areas.

In the EU we’ve contributed to consultations on the introduction of mandatory due diligence legislation at regional level and within Member States and we support moves to introduce such a framework.

4. RIGHTS HOLDER CONSULTATION AND WORKER ENGAGEMENT:

Workers in the supply chains have clearly defined rights yet are often excluded from the due diligence process or face obstacles in getting their voices and views heard. We have worked at building trusted partnerships with local and regional stakeholders to give us ongoing insight into the needs of workers. Our local teams also regularly engage with factory management and workers. This not only provides important feedback about the issues they face, but also into the impact of our work with them.

For example, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic we partnered with Microfinance Opportunities, a US-based NGO, and SANEM, their local partner in Bangladesh, to establish a six-month project called   Soromik er Kotha.   It was set up to collect data to help us understand workers’ views and experiences in the workplace. The project was modelled on the Worker Diaries project in Bangladesh. We established a sample of 400 workers from across various factories in Primark’s supply chains, all recruited via community networks and paid for their time engaging with the project. We collected their answers to a set of questions at defined intervals to gain an understanding of their views on a range of areas including health and safety in the workplace, payment of wages and bonuses, and retrenchment. Our aim for the project is to generate valuable data and insight to help us understand and be better able to respond to the challenges being faced by workers in Bangladesh.

Global Sourcing Map

Primark does not own any factories and is selective about the suppliers with whom we work. Every factory which manufactures product for Primark has to commit to meeting internationally recognised standards, before the first order is placed and throughout the time they work with us.

How change looks

Find Out More

Protecting Our Planet

We are dependent upon our planet. That’s why we’re working hard to reduce our impact on the environment.

Meeting International Standards

Engaging our supply chains is key to our efforts to improve performance. We don’t own or operate the factories which make our products, so building close and trusting relationships with them is a key factor to our progress in becoming a more sustainable business.

Driving Continuous Improvement

It’s important to us that we can monitor the coverage and effectiveness of the steps we take to maintain respect for workers’ rights and the environment in our supply chains.

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