Sustainable and transparent supply chains are a key focus area in Kesko’s sustainability work. While most of our purchases come from suppliers operating in Finland, we also source products globally.
Since much of the world’s clothing production now takes place in Asia, we carefully monitor human rights issues and working conditions when sourcing clothing for the mywear range sold by K-Citymarkets. We also cooperate with the Swedish company ICA in sourcing mywear clothing.
Working conditions monitored through audits
All our suppliers’ factories are regularly subject to third-party social responsibility audits, primarily the amfori BSCI audit.
These audits assess working conditions in production, including occupational safety, remuneration, working hours and compliance with the ban on child and forced labour. The results of the audits help identify areas for improvement, and any corrective measures and their monitoring are also part of the auditing process.
Doing our part to promote living wages
Living wages and incomes are a major structural challenge in global supply chains. Achieving them requires the contribution of all parties in the supply chain, such as businesses, unions and other labour groups, industry organisations, governments, NGOs, and academia.
At Kesko, we believe we can best contribute to promoting sustainable clothing production through amfori membership and collaboration with other organisations. We are committed to promoting living wages and incomes as a part of our human rights commitment.
Factory lists updated annually
Each year, we publish on our website a list of the factories that manufacture clothing, footwear, bags and home textiles for mywear and our other brands. To improve supply chain transparency, the list includes factory names and addresses and the number of employees.
We require commitment to the International Accord
Kesko is a signatory to the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garments Industry. The Accord promotes building safety, and occupational health and safety at garment and textile factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
All textile factories in Bangladesh producing mywear and myhome brand products for K-Citymarket are covered by the International Accord process. These factories are audited regularly, and remediation of any deficiencies is closely monitored.
We are not currently sourcing textiles from Pakistan, but we are nevertheless committed to supporting the International Accord’s work there as well.
Tracing Our Products: see where a mywear t-shirt comes from
On our Tracing Our Products website, we provide our customers more information about our work and the origins of our products. One of the featured products is a mywear T-shirt, whose origin and route to Finland we explain in detail.
More information about our purchasing principles can also be found on our website.
YES
NO
