Haugen-Gruppen Nordic Transparency Act

Transparency Act
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Haugen-Gruppen was founded more than 100 years ago in Norway.
Genuine passion & curiosity for food and beverage has led us to
work with brands from all over the world. We currently have a strong
presence, with subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
We supply supermarkets, service stations, canteens, cafes, restaurants
and the Norwegian state-owned wines and spirits retailer,
Vinmonopolet. Together, we build strong categories and develop new
concepts. Naturally, we comply with international guidelines on the
environment and climate change, as well as ethical business practices.
We also implement our own initiatives that go beyond these.
Description of guidelines and routines for dealing with actual and
potential negative consequences for basic human rights and decent
working conditions:
We are facing ever greater challenges related to climate, environment
and sustainability, and our contribution from a sustainability perspective
is therefore also increasingly important. As a company, we want to
continuously operate with good measures throughout our value chain.
It is central to Haugen-Gruppen’s values that we act responsibly towards
people and the planet, and hereby contribute towards a sustainable
future. Based on the UN’s sustainability goals, we have defined
goals for where we can put in greater effort and make a difference.
These goals form the framework for our sustainability strategy.
Haugen-Gruppen Nordic AS has partners from all over the world and
we want to be a positive catalyst and a driving force for sustainability
throughout the value chain for food and drinks. We welcome the
Transparency Act that came into force during the summer of 2022 in
Norway welcome, as this will drive further measures linked to human
rights and decent work. Despite later implementation of the Act in the
other Nordics market, Haugen-Gruppen Nordic has enabled an earlier
implementation in its subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
The work with the Transparency Act is anchored in the local management
in each subsidiary, and the CFO has been actively involved with
the due diligence assessments. Together with an external adviser,
we have reviewed our Nordic supply chain, and chosen to follow up
our most critical suppliers, as well as those where we have defined
the greatest risk because of their industry and market. The risk is
assessed in relation to The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial
Management’s (DFØ) high-risk list.
We have asked the selected suppliers to explain how they work
according to several sustainability considerations and asked them to
document this. This is done for suppliers who have business with
Haugen-Gruppen Nordic AS or any of its subsidiaries in the Nordics.
DISCOVERED ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES
No actual negative consequences were uncovered in our due
diligence assessments.
We have however uncovered some risks of negative consequences
in our supply chain. This is mainly due to the nature of the industry
we operate in, with both food and drinks being considered high risk
industries by DFØ.
We have uncovered risks associated with a lack of described ethical
routines at some of our suppliers. There are also some of our suppliers
who do not have specified requirements to their suppliers related to
labor rights, human rights, the environment and/or anti-corruption.
There are also several of our suppliers who have not carried out their
own due diligence assessments, and there is therefore a risk linked
to a lack of information about their sub-suppliers. We take these
findings very seriously and will follow up these suppliers moving
forward through our digital software tool, in order to lessen the risks
in our supply chain.
OUR MEASURES
Moving forward, we will follow up with our suppliers and ask them to
implement the described ethical routines, as well as to start their own
due diligence assessments. We also want to expand our work going
forward, and follow up with more suppliers, to get an even better
overview of the risks inherent in our value chain.
We have also created a whistleblowing channel where customers and
other stakeholders can notify about any conditions.
We expect that these measures will lead to a lower risk of negative
consequences in our value chain, and also hope that our influence
will lead to our suppliers following up on their own sub-suppliers,
ensuring positive impact on our industry as a whole.
Haraldur R. Jónsson
Chairman
Marino Marinosson
CEO