our people

With the help of our colleagues, we choose a corporate charity to support. It's important for us to give back to the communities in which we live and work, and it's important that we champion charities close to our colleagues' heart. In March 2025, we announced that our new corporate charity partner is Greater Manchester Youth Network. 

From bake sales to raffles, and heart-pumping skydives, colleagues help us reach our fundraising targets.

Every colleague can also take a Make A Difference (MAD) Day each year, a day to come together and make a difference to those who need it most. Whether that's volunteering for our corporate charity partner or a charity closer to an individual colleague's heart, it's entirely up to our colleagues how they spend their MAD Day.

We continue to be active members of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative). We participate in a number of programmes

• Leicester – Along with a number of retailers we commissioned independent research into Leicester’s garment manufacturing sector. It was felt that some substantive research was needed to understand the situation before we decide on the relevant action. The report highlighted a number of issues surrounding excessive working hours, low wages and unauthorised sub-contracting. We are working on a programme to tackle all these issues raised working with trade unions and civil society. We are committed to support our suppliers in Leicester to raise the standards of the industry as a whole.

• Tamil Nadu, Southern India – Working with other retailers and civil society we are tackling the wider Sumangali scheme. This scheme is where young, usually women workers, are attracted to employment in mills and factories in the Tiripur region with the promise of paid work, safe accommodation and a final cash lump sum payment at the end of the working period. However research has shown some of these schemes are bonded labour, with excessive working hours, poor living conditions and lump sums not being paid at the end of the scheme. We are working across the industry to set up a regulation, inspection and service model that can be used in all mills and factories. The project is engaging 2,650 workers across 6 spinning mills and 1 factory.