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2021 BSR Group Modern Slavery Statement

Please see the 2022 BSR Group Modern Slavery Statement here

2019 Modern Slavery Statement for BSR Group

BSR Group (BSR) is made up of BSR Australia Ltd (ACN 122 529 695) and its wholly owned subsidiary BSR Franchising (ACN 122 556 094). 

BSR is a franchisor operating in the electrical and furniture retail industry and provides services to its franchisees and associated retailers, and to a lesser extent some product for re-sale.  There are over 200 independent retail businesses across Australia associated with BSR.  BSR itself has less than 100 employees at its headquarters located at unit 18, 56 Lavarack Avenue, Eagle Farm Brisbane, Queensland.  

BSR opposes slavery in all its forms.  This statement, which is intended to meet the requirements of
section 13 of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) and section 24 of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW)[1], outlines the steps taken by BSR during the financial year ending 31 March 2019 to seek to minimise the risk of modern slavery occurring in our businesses or their supply chains.

BSR has an annual turnover exceeding $100M.  To find out more about the nature of our business, you can visit https://www.bsrgroup.com.au/.

Our commitment

BSR is committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our supply chains or in any part of our business and acknowledge our role and responsibility in seeking to safeguard human rights through ethical and sustainable business practices.  

Our direct import product range consists of upholstered and timber furniture and is sourced from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.  This allows us to focus our oversight over reviewed, approved and discrete geographic areas. 

Our wider supply chain relationships include local wholesale importer and reseller businesses.  We strive to ensure these suppliers meet the required standards and demonstrate consistency in ethical practices throughout their supply chains.

Where possible, we engage suppliers who have relationships with existing suppliers so that we can contain our supplier network and improve consistency in ethical practices throughout the supply chain.

We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and taking reasonable steps to ensure slavery is not taking place in any business or organisation that has any sort of business relationship with our organisation.

Potential modern slavery risks                                                                                                            

We have identified the following modern slavery risks which we may be involved with directly or indirectly through our business activities or relationships:

  • Non-compliance with health and safety requirements, working hours, wages, forced labour, child labour and freedom of association; and
  • Non-compliance with broader human rights including employee rights to equality, fair pay, safety and privacy.

Our governance of modern slavery risks

BSR expects all those in our supply chain to comply with our zero tolerance to slavery.

To identify and mitigate risk, BSR has the following systems in place:

Modern Slavery Policy

We have developed a Modern Slavery Policy which sets clear objectives around our supplier engagement process, grievance mechanisms and supplier collaboration.

Business Partner Questionnaire

We now require our business partners to complete an annual Business Partner Questionnaire outlining any modern slavery in their operations and supply chains and actions to address those risks. 

We expect our suppliers to have anti-slavery policies or equivalent and request copies of these documents at various intervals (for example, at contract renewal, or annually for longer contracts).

Third party contracts

We have incorporated modern slavery clauses into all our contracts with third parties in our supply chains requesting those third parties to provide information regarding modern slavery risks when requested. 

Reporting suspicions of slavery

All personnel can report any suspicions of breaches of the Modern Slavery Policy through the procedures set out in the BSR Whistleblowing Policy.

Training

The BSR executive management team is responsible for compliance in managing supplier relationships.  In addition, we will introduce a training programme on modern slavery and processes for incident reporting accordingly.

All personnel undergo an induction process where our policies, procedures and expectations are outlined.  

Key performance indicators and assessing the effectiveness of our actions

BSR has the following key performance indicators in place to measure its effectiveness in ensuring that slavery is not taking place in any of its business or supply chains:

  • A review of modern slavery statement and policies; and
  • Communication and personal contact with the supply chain to ensure their understanding of, and compliance with our expectations.

BSR is committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our supply chains or in any part of our business.

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 24 July 2019.

 


[1] At the time of publishing, the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW) was not yet in force and the proposed regulations under the Act had not been published.