The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC Annual Report 2005

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The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC Annual Report 2005
Corporate Responsibility continued
WE ARE A LOW IMPACT
BUSINESS IN SEE TERMS
MORE FORMAL CO-ORDINATION
OF ISSUES TO BE PUT IN PLACE
COMMITMENT TO EQUAL
ACCESS FOR ALL OUR
CUSTOMERS
Areas where we hold the greatest difference against
the average in the retail sector include being personally
valued by the organisation, making good use of skills
and abilities, fair pay, and being proud to work for
the organisation.
This success is reflected in the awards that The
Carphone Warehouse has won in the last year.
• Mobile Choice Best High Street Retailer
• Mobile News Best Large Retailer
• Retail Week Business Excellence
• Retail Week Innovative Employer
• Sunday Times 4th Best Large Company
to Work For
• What Mobile Best High Street Retailer
Regulatory and social responsibilities
We continue to operate in a relatively low impact
industry and our meetings and discussions with
Group businesses on social, environmental and
ethical (‘SEE’) matters give us confidence both that
the SEE risks to our business are relatively low, and
also that controls are in place to ensure compliance
with new laws and regulations where necessary. We
remain very much abreast of key issues and business
risks arising in these areas (as outlined below). Over
the coming year we will undertake to put the SEE
committee on a more formal footing and renew our
Board representation.
Below we have identified the key SEE-related risks
currently affecting the Group. The list is not intended to
be exhaustive but to address those risks that are most
material to the business.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
(‘WEEE Directive’)
In March 2005, the UK Government announced its
intention to transpose the WEEE Directive into law
by the summer of 2005. The producer responsibility
obligations and the take-back obligations on retailers
and distributors are planned to commence in January
2006. Our purchasing teams across the Group are
working with our Group legal department and our
suppliers to ensure compliance within this timetable.
Disability discrimination
We are constantly reviewing and improving our websites
and stores to provide greater accessibility for our
disabled customers. We have a special needs section
on our retail website (www.carphonewarehouse.com),
and in June 2004 we launched dedicated phone
numbers for our customers. In addition, we now
provide bills in a number of formats for the visuallyimpaired.
During the year our corporate website
(www.cpwplc.com) was also extensively overhauled
to comply with the Royal National Institute of the Blind’s
“See It Right” accessibility criteria and priority level 1
criteria of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines.
The Disability Discrimination Act came into force in the
UK in October 2004. Over 90% of our UK stores are
now fully accessible for wheelchair users. To assist
customers, we have published a list of stores with access
difficulties on our website, with suggested alternative
stores in the area. Induction loops have been provided
to all stores, and drop counters are now fitted in new
stores as standard. Stores also have customer care
packs containing magnifying glasses and easy-grip pens.
We remain fully committed to the principle that
disabled customers should as far as possible be
able to obtain goods and services in just the same
way as any other customer, and we continue to
monitor the situation to improve access facilities
wherever possible.
Fighting mobile crime
In 2003 The Carphone Warehouse spearheaded the
joint industry ‘Immobilise’ campaign, with the aim of
encouraging customers to report their lost or stolen
handset, so that it could be blacklisted. In January
2005 a second ‘Immobilise’ campaign was launched,
this time asking customers to register their lost or
stolen phones on Immobilise.com for the best chance
of getting it back.