How we ESG our business – Social

 

Our people – our greatest asset

 
Our people - our greatest asset

The people who work at Bidfood are the heartbeat of our organisation and our most valuable asset. They are highly skilled, dedicated and hard working, with a service culture second to none.

Bidfood is committed to creating a place for each individual to grow and develop through their careers as part of our team. Bidfood SA had the opportunity to acknowledge and recognise one of their team this year. Greg Govender has been with the group for most of his life. His father was a branch manager and introduced Greg to the operations. Greg immediately connected with the culture. Post his studies he joined the team as a warehouse picker. Identifying strong role models in the branches, Greg emulated and learned from them. As a strong performer, these managers chose to mentor Greg, enabling him to grow within the business. Greg was awarded the National Operations Manager award in 2018, resulting in a promotion to General Manager in Bidfood East London in 2019.

Greg's story is one of many – a heart warming and inspiring journey in the life of a Bidfood employee – from general worker to general manager, from ordinary to extraordinary!

 

 

Blowing the whistle

Bidcorp has invested in an independently globally accessible anonymous tip-offs line. With local telephone lines available in all Bidfood countries, operators are ready to engage, in the callers’ preferred language, to bring the concerns to the attention of the group executive. Email and webservice facilities are also available for those preferring to put their concerns in writing. The global service is provided by Deloitte and is completely independent of Bidcorp. All matters raised will be dealt with, reported in total anonymity, without fear of discrimination of any kind, investigated and feedback provided (if requested). The whistleblowers’ identity will always be protected, unless otherwise requested. Bidcorp, in line with legislation, will ensure protection from victimisation, harassment or any form of work place discrimination as a result of “blowing-the-whistle” on wrongdoing in the workplace.

http://www.bidcorpgroup.com/tip-offs.php https://www.tip-offs.com/MakeReport.aspx

 

Ethical code

Bidcorp's code of ethics sets the standard for our behaviour. Quarterly declarations from each business confirms application and compliance to this code.

 

http://www.bidcorpgroup.com/code-of-ethics.php

"The future is what you BAKE of it"

 

Fatality

It is with deep sympathy we report a fatality in our UK operations. During August 2018, a truck driver suffered a fatal heart attack. We express our condolences to his family.

Counselling and support services are available to our staff to help them cope through difficult and stressful life experiences.

 

Ethical trading

Modern slavery is a hidden disgrace and must be addressed. Bidfood will not trade with a supplier or sell to a customer that practises any form of modern slavery. To ensure this we:

  • Work with the Ethical Trading Initiative
  • Promote awareness of the modern slavery issue within our business
  • Shorten our supply chain wherever possible
  • our supply chains and assess them for points of potential risk; these then become our focus for audits/visits
  • Use suppliers that have an independent accreditation
  • Slavery is something that can be managed out of a supply chain, we cannot "nudge" suppliers away from such practices. If we identify slavery we will stop trading with that supplier and seek alternative supplies immediately.

It was a proud day for both the school and its wider community at the launch of the Chipkins Puratos Bakery School South Africa, at Masisebenze Secondary School in Tembisa on February 11 2019. The Bakery School – an industry first for South Africa – will now empower an annual intake of twenty-five grade 11 learners at the school, as they begin a two-year programme that arms them with an NQF Level 2 qualification at the same time as they complete their matriculation certificate.

The Bakery School is a non-profit company supported by Chipkins Puratos. Globally, Belgium-based Puratos has helped to open three similar schools in India, Brazil and Mexico.

 
Job well done certificate

A job well done

Bidfood UK, the first foodservice company to achieve The Planet Mark™, has held this award since 2016.

Bidfood UK has been acknowledged with 37 awards from differing industry organisations for their sustainability efforts and reporting thereof.

Transformation

Bidcorp, as a JSE listed company, is committed to transformation in South Africa. The board reiterates its unequivocal message that diversity is a strategic imperative, and is committed to its policy on gender and race diversity.

Bidcorp achieved a level 4 rating in 2018. The 2019 Bidcorp rating is still under review. Bidfood SA's and Crown Food have not finalised their 2019 ratings. Chipkins-Puratos has achieved a preliminary 2019 rating of level 4, hopefully finalised at a level 3, once their participation in the "YES" programme has been factored in. We do anticipate challenges in maintaining our ratings under the revised BBBEE codes.

Bidcorp Food Africa continues to invest significantly in its transformation journey. The impact of the Preferential Procurement requirements within the revised BBBEE codes has proven to be a challenge. An increasing number of our larger suppliers have been negatively impacted by the revised codes, many of them even now non-compliant, with limited alternate suppliers available in the market.

We are actively investing in the development and transformation of our supply chain, however these initiatives take time. We anticipate this procurement challenge to worsen before we are likely to be able to reap the benefits of a transformed supply chain through enterprise and supplier development initiatives, not just of our own, but of the broader sector and allied disciplines.

People development is supported by substantial training investment and in 2019 a growing number of previously disadvantaged employee candidates were selected and prepared for higher responsibility. These initiatives continue to contribute significantly to our succession planning efforts and material improvements in workforce diversity.

The YES programme has been successfully implemented by all three South African businesses. Bidfood took on forty-nine YES candidates for a one year learnership, upskilling them in wholesale and retail operations, as well as a specialised sales training module. The programme allowed each candidate to immerse themselves in the business and various aspects of its operations. Forty-five of these candidates successfully completed the programme, with twenty-seven candidates accepting full time positions in the business post completion. Similar approaches were employed in both Crown Food and Chipkins-Puratos.

Socio-economic development remains an area within which the Bidcorp Food Africa businesses excel, recognised for their efforts by far exceeding the expectations of the BBBEE scorecard.

Bidcorp's goal remains the implementation of a sustainable long-term transformation programme, embracing commercially impactful solutions beneficial to our stakeholders, for continued business growth.

 

http://www.bidcorpgroup.com/transformation.php

 

Food safety

The food industry navigated the outbreak of many food related viruses and illnesses during 2019. This is an inherent risk of the foodservice industry. What sets Bidfood apart is the proactive, engaging and educational approach adopted. With epidemics of foot and mouth, African swine flu, listeriosis and others, the global operations were equipped and able to respond. There were no material supply interruptions, illnesses or fatalities reported. This is not without thanks and acknowledgement to our health and safety teams around the world, and their tireless efforts to maintain the highest levels of food quality and food safety.