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Relevant corporate governance practices of HORNBACH HOLDING AG
We base our entrepreneurial activities on the legal frameworks valid in the various countries in which we operate. This places a wide variety of obligations on the overall HORNBACH Group and its employees in Germany and abroad. As well as managing the company responsibly in accordance with the relevant laws, ordinances and other guidelines we have also compiled internal group guidelines setting out the system of values and management principles we adhere to within the Group.
Compliance
In a competitive climate, only those companies which manage to convince their customers with their innovation, quality, reliability, dependability and fairness on an ongoing basis will succeed in the long term. Here, we see compliance with legal requirements, internal company guidelines and ethical principles (compliance) as absolutely crucial. HORNBACH’s corporate culture is based on these principles, key aspects of which are also formulated in the company’s Corporate Compliance Policy (download) These focus above all on the integrity of our business dealings, protecting our internal expertise, compliance with antitrust law and all requirements governing international trade, correct documentation and financial communications, and equality of opportunity and the principle of sustainability.
At HORNBACH, adherence with compliance requirements is consistently expected of its employees and business partners and is also monitored, with sanctions being imposed where necessary. In October 2009, the Board of Management entrusted the coordination and documentation of compliance activities across the Group to a Chief Compliance Officer. This manager is responsible for establishing and permanently optimizing the organizational structures necessary to enforce the Group’s Corporate Compliance Policy. The group internal audit department audits compliance with the Corporate Compliance Policy at regular intervals.
Our system: the HORNBACH Values
HORNBACH is a forward-looking, family-managed company and is characterized by a clear system of values. The values on which this system is based are honesty, credibility, reliability, clarity and trust in people. This system of values, which had already been lived over many decades, was summarized in the so-called HORNBACH Values (download) in 2004. This model forms the cornerstone for our corporate strategy, everyday behavior and responsibility towards society. It lays down the basic values governing how we behave towards our customers, as well how our employees behave towards each other. Moreover, this foundation helps our shareholders, customers and the general public, as well as our employees, to understand what the basis of our business success is .
Compliance with social, safety and environmental standards
The development of company guidelines governing minimum social standards, environmental protection, product safety and equality of opportunities forms an integral component of our corporate policy, as does monitoring compliance with such. Within our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) framework, we have issued group-wide guidelines to ensure that HORNBACH meets its responsibilities towards individuals, society at large and the environment. The CSR guidelines (download) cover four areas of responsibility:
Minimum social standards: In our procurement activities we ensure that acceptable minimum standards are complied with in the manufacture of our products. We base our standards here on the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). With the assistance of standardized factory audits and targeted checks on location, we are actively working to ensure compliance with these standards. These efforts are currently focusing above all on direct imports from non-EU countries. We are nevertheless endeavoring to make sure that a continuously higher share of our suppliers and upstream suppliers commit to these regulations.
Protecting the rainforests: : In our procurement of timber and related products we ensure that the timber is cultivated and felled in accordance with generally accepted rules, especially those governing rain forest protection. For all timber products sold by HORNBACH we make sure that the timber does not stem from forest depletion, but rather from sustainable forestry and that social welfare and occupational safety standards are adhered to in the timber production process. To this end, we work together with WWF Woodgroup and other environmental protection
organizations, such as Greenpeace, Robin Wood etc. HORNBACH currently stocks more than 2,500 articles bearing the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) seal for sustainable forestry. We only offer FSC-certified tropical woods.
Product safety: We guarantee to our customers that all of our products meet the utmost safety standards. Within the framework of a multistage process to assure the quality and audit the safety of its products, the company ensures that all DIY products sold at HORNBACH are fully functional and do not involve any health risks. These checks are performed by employees in HORNBACH’s quality management department with support from internationally certified inspection institutes. Alongside extensive product tests (initial sample inspections), the company focuses on auditing suppliers in the country of manufacture. The quality controllers also audit environmental and social welfare standards at the factories. This way, we ensure that no forced labor or child labor is involved in the production of our merchandise. Not only that, we also perform random checks to audit compliance with strict quality standards along the entire procurement chain – from production via transport to sale at our stores.
Equality of opportunity (diversity): We ensure that our employees enjoy equal opportunities. We consistently oppose any kind of discrimination. HORNBACH is committed to promoting a liberal and open society based on shared values both within and outside the company. It is in this spirit that we also signed the corporate “Diversity Charter” initiated by the Federal Government in 2008 and have worked with print campaigns dedicated to “Tolerance within Society” aimed at raising people’s awareness of this topic.
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