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Modern Slavery Statement

Bollin Group Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement for the Financial Year Ending 2025

The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the ‘Act’) requires businesses to state the actions they have taken during the financial year to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in their business or supply chains. Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking, and forced labour. Bollin Group Limited has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery. We are committed to acting ethically, with integrity and transparency in all business dealings, and to implementing effective systems, checks, and controls to safeguard against any form of modern slavery within our business or supply chain.

Values and Focus

Our mission is to manage an ethical, environmental, and profitable business. Integrity is paramount to us, and all our companies and brands consider this our most important value.

Business and Supply Chain

Bollin Group Limited is a successful independent family-owned business. We own a portfolio of carefully assembled brands in the Outdoor Sector and are a multi-channel distributor of Group-owned brands and other specialist brands in Outdoor, Sports, Homeware, DIY/Garden, and Watches.

The Group is an international business with its head office in Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK. We have brand and distribution operations in the UK, Germany, and Canada, and own sock manufacturing facilities in the UK and South Africa. We design products for our owned brands and have strategic manufacturing partners in Asia and Europe. We nominate and manage our raw material suppliers in Asia and Europe. Our multi-channel distribution business is built around high-quality, reputable products and brands, based on long-standing and successful relationships.

Policy and Risk Management

We fully recognise and embrace our obligations and have a zero-tolerance approach to slavery and human trafficking. Within the global supply chain, we have an alliance with the Fair Wear Foundation (FW) for our OSC brands. With this, we work to identify, prevent, mitigate and address any adverse human rights impacts we may cause, contribute or be linked to. Under our Fair Wear partnership, we work to their eight Code of Labour Practices, based on ILO Conventions:

  1. Employment is freely chosen
  2. There is no discrimination in employment
  3. No exploitation of child labour
  4. Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
  5. Payment of a living wage
  6. Reasonable hours of work
  7. Safe and healthy working conditions
  8. Legally binding employment relationship

 

All external monitoring and corrective action plans are managed by our internal compliance monitoring team. Our internal compliance monitoring team is responsible for communication and awareness training for staff associated with supply chain management. The Group’s major brands are annually monitored through a Brand Performance Check carried out by the Fair Wear Foundation. The results are published annually on the Fair Wear Foundation website.

Operations and Temporary Labour

Within our operations, we periodically use temporary labour, particularly in our warehousing activities. We only use third-party agency providers who fulfil all UK legal responsibilities. We have established internal policies and protocols to fulfil our obligations with employed staff covering:

  • Equal Opportunities
  • Recruitment & Selection
  • Diversity
  • Bullying & Harassment
  • Whistleblowing
  • Family Friendly Policies

 

Future Plans

Our work to identify and address risks connected to modern slavery is continuous. We aim to focus on the following:

  • Maintain our partnership with Fair Wear,
  • Review and move towards consolidation of the supply chain,
  • Introduce formal pre-business audits of supply chain compliance with any new distributors,
  • Formalise the annual review of any third-party agency providers in UK operations.

 

Additional Measures

In addition to the above, we are committed to continuous improvement in our practices to combat modern slavery. This includes:

  • Conducting regular risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential risks of modern slavery in our operations and supply chains.
  • Ensuring all employees and contractors are aware of our policies and their responsibilities through ongoing training and communication.
  • Collaborating with industry partners and stakeholders to share best practices and drive collective action against modern slavery.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the year ending 31st January 2026. This statement was approved by the Board of Bollin Group Limited.