OUR BUSINESS PRINCIPALS

BUILD BACK BETTER FOR WORKERS AND THE WORLD

The Oxford business is committed to offering beautifully designed goods of exceptional quality, in categories such as men’s and women’s clothing, footwear and accessories. All of the products are responsibly sourced and commercially priced.

The primary financial objective is to build shareholder value through long term sustainable growth, while conducting our business responsibly. This long term value creation is driven by our core principles of adding value, making a profit and achieving an acceptable return on capital.

Our code of operations is underpinned by the following principles, which ensures we do business responsibly and deal with our stakeholders respectfully:

1. Act in an ethical manner

2. Recognise, respect and protect human rights

3. Develop positive relationships with our suppliers

4. Take responsibility for our impact on the environment

Oxford is committed to the ideal of trading ethically, sourcing responsibly and working to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain. We take seriously any allegation of human rights abuse in all its forms and refuse to accept it. 

We are committed to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking throughout our business and supply chain and to understanding the modern slavery risks that may be present.

 We do this by:

1. continuing to take steps to find effective methods to eliminate slavery and human trafficking. We are working towards full transparency of our supply chain.

2. ensuring that our policies and procedures are reviewed regularly and that we have development and training processes in place to enable our internal teams and our suppliers to have an appropriate awareness and understanding of the issues and our responsibilities.

3. respecting internationally recognised human rights, ensuring the people who provide the products we buy and use are treated fairly and that their fundamental human rights are protected and respected.

4. Continuous improvement lies at the heart of our business. We aim to conduct our business in an ethical manner and to develop positive relationships with our suppliers to raise standards of working conditions in the factories where our products are made.

THE FUTURE

Oxford’s future strategy of trading ethically and sourcing responsibly will fall into main 3 categories:

1. Suppliers

2. Traceability

3. Environment

1. SUPPLIERS

It is Oxford’s intention to focus more time and energy on the highest risks to modern slavery within its supply chain. These are:

a) suppliers who subcontract manufacturing processes

b) freedom of association and collective bargaining

c) health and safety (including mental health)

d) children’s rights

e) wage retention

f) harassment and discrimination

g) water, sanitation and health

The time taken to respond to any of the above breaches requires improvement. Our employees or, 3^rd party inspectors are mandated to report incidents within 24 hours of visiting a factory and implement an appropriate response plan immediately.

This prompt and immediate action will serve to reinforce our positive engagement and awareness of modern slavery issues within the supply chain.

2. TRACEABILITY

Whilst challenging, Oxford is committed to building full transparency to trace the raw materials we use back to source. In most cases, with the exception of merino wool-tops, we do not source raw materials directly therefore, we will be working more closely with our suppliers to ensure traceable routes are identified.

This will enable us to source products in ways which support their replenishment, respect human rights and protect natural habitats, as harvesting and production can have a significant impact on people and cause damage to environments and ecosystems if not managed correctly.

We will work to deliver full transparency by 2025.

 3. ENVIRONMENT

Our primacies for key operational activities are to:

1. Work closely with suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of the products

2. Improve energy efficiency and identify further opportunities to reduce energy use in our buildings

3. Work to increase the amount of waste diverted for recycling and identify opportunities to minimise the waste produced

4. Offer recycling services for customers when they no longer require their products

Oxford is committed to improving energy efficiency thereby reducing both carbon emissions and costs for our business. During the year we anticipate electricity consumption will be reduced by 5%

Our H/O, warehouse and majority of our stores all have building management systems installed. These manage key functions such as when lighting and air conditioning is activated, directly helping to manage consumption, Additionally, LED lighting was recently fitted as standard in both existing and new stores.

Oxford is working to reduce the amount of waste produced, for ourselves and our customers, and our approach is to:

1. Eliminate unnecessary or problematic packaging without compromising on quality.

2. Increase the recyclability of packaging by working towards all packaging being reusable or recyclable.

3. Reduce the environmental impact by working to eliminate more damaging materials such as PVC, acetate and polystyrene, which are more difficult to recycle.

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