Our Business

Our Responsibilities

It's All Good, is our philosophy. Our aim is to ensure that this simple message permeates through every aspect of our business, touching the lives of our suppliers, our customers and consumers, our employees and their families, our local and global communities and is reflected in our continuously improving environmental and social performance. These pages contain detailed information about the Corporate Responsibility activities of McCain Foods (GB) Ltd, a division of McCain Foods Limited of Canada, whose global Corporate Social Responsibility benchmark report for 2009 “Our Journey”, can be found by following the links at: http://www.mccain.com/Pages/Home.aspx

Our Supply Chain

Through our large network of suppliers, including of course our potato growers, our customers and consumers we work to promote sustainable agricultural practices, protection of human rights, fair trading, the provision of good wholesome food products and not least the responsible promotion of those products.
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Our Employees

We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset and that in order for them to realise their potential we must provide a safe and healthy working environment, full training and development opportunities, the means for a good work-life balance to be achieved and the encouragement to take their skills outside the workplace for the benefit of themselves and the community as a whole.
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Our Environment

In our business we are close to the land and especially aware of our responsibilities to the environment and its limited resources in providing our raw materials, resourcing our manufacturing facilities and distributing our products for our consumers to enjoy in the knowledge that we work continuously to improve our performance in all aspects of our environmental impact.
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Our Communities

The interests of the local communities around our processing facilities and the broader communities we serve with our products are central to our operations. We rely on the goodwill of our communities, recruit our employees from them and supply our products to them. By supporting associations and charities at both local and national level, helping to address the issues surrounding healthy diet and lifestyle and by consulting and actively engaging with our communities on issues relating to our operations affecting them, we strive to build meaningful and lasting relationships of mutual benefit and trust.
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Our Responsibilities - Principles & Policies

SUPPLY CHAIN - Responsible Directors Supply Chain and Manufacturing

Our relationship with the farming industry has been long and productive – it is a cultural thing within our business. Purchasing 12-14% of the UK potato crop annually, McCain works with over 300 farmers in the UK, and some of those relationships stretch back over three generations. Owning a seed business in Montrose, Scotland, enables us to monitor and control the quality of our potatoes from cultivation to harvest.

A supporter of the Assured Produce Scheme, we wholeheartedly promote sustainable and environmentally responsible farming in the UK. We are also a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) which was set up in 2003 to develop guidelines and recommendations for best farming practice.

Principle: Sustainable Agriculture

We will work with our growers to ensure the future sustainability of potato cultivation, encouraging good stewardship of the land through programmes such as McCain Foods GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) Programme, designed to reduce soil erosion, water usage, and the application of artificial pesticides and fertilizers, ensuring safety and sustainability at every stage of the process

Our Policies

  • Continuing membership of SAI Platform (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative). SAI Platform is an organisation created by the food industry to communicate worldwide and to actively support the development of sustainable agriculture involving the different stakeholders of the food chain.

    SAI Platform supports agricultural practices and agricultural production systems that preserve the future availability of current resources and enhance their efficiency. This increases agriculture's contribution to the optimal satisfaction of society's environmental, economic and social requirements.

    McCain Foods global Vice President of Agriculture sits on the SAI Board of Directors, we have representation on a number of Working Groups and McCain Foods (GB) Ltd led a pilot project 2006-2008 to understand potato crop production within a whole farming system and its impact on selected sustainability indicators, with a view to ensuring sustainability of production whilst enhancing biodiversity on the farm.
  • One of our targets is to continuously reduce the amount of artificial nitrogen fertilizer applied to the potato crop year on year. Since 2003 when this programme began application has reduced from 5.2 kg per tonne of potatoes grown, to 5 kg per tonne. This represents a reduction in application of almost 150 tonnes of fertilizer in a season on a pro rata basis and is achieved through a combination of increased cultivation of varieties specifically bred to require less nitrogen and the continuing use of best practice to carefully control the levels of application of fertilizer. One such variety, grown increasingly since 2003 delivers more than 10% higher yield per hectare, when compared to our traditional main crop varieties, whilst at the same time needing over 30% less nitrogen. The programme is a long term one with the objective of reducing application to 4.8 kg per tonne by 2014.

Principle: Supplier standards

We are committed to working with supply chain partners to achieve the highest ethical and business standards and to provide greater transparency on how we work together.

Our Policies

  • All of our suppliers are audited and approved. The process of approval to become a listed McCain supplier involves the McCain Technical Auditor operating a continuous regime of audit and approval of all suppliers to the Company, of food and food related materials, by visiting them initially before supply begins and then routinely, as determined by risk assessment, to ensure that supply standards are maintained. The audit questionnaire covers a wide spectrum of activities, including but not limited to food safety and hygiene practices, HACCP, employee health and safety, supplier employment practices, human rights, ethical trading standards and environmental performance.
  • Our target is 100% compliance with these standards and during 2009 all of the suppliers audited met the standards

Principle: Product Integrity and Safety

We will continue to offer our customers and consumers a range of safe and healthy foods, through our sustainable agricultural policies and the world class accreditation of our manufacturing facilities to the highest standards of product health and safety.

Our Policies

  • Our target is to source potatoes only from growers who are members of the Assured Produce Scheme in Great Britain. All of our contracted growers are members and if we need to buy potatoes outside of contracted volumes we source them initially from those same contracted growers, or if necessary from non-contracted growers who are also members of the Assured Produce Scheme. In 2009 all the potatoes used to make our chip products were sourced from Assured Produce growers.
  • Our extensive agronomy team work continuously with our growers throughout the season to ensure that the highest standards are maintained.
  • The highest levels of accreditation for product health and safety. Our French Fry facilities are accredited to BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Standard. In 2009 the fourth of our five manufacturing facilities achieved AIB (American Institute of Bakers) Gold Standard accreditation and we aim to have all five facilities accredited to AIB Gold Standard by 2010. AIB International is a corporation founded by the North American wholesale and retail baking industries in 1919. Although AIB's history has been traditionally linked with North American wholesale and retail baking, the Institute currently serves many segments of the food processing, distribution, foodservice, and retail industries worldwide.
    AIB Gold Standard of certification assures our customers that our facilities have met high standards for food safety and quality through a process which includes:
    • The industry standard Good Manufacturing Audit, conducted twice per year over two to four days.
    • Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) verification.
    • AIB’s Quality Systems evaluation

Principle: Product Quality and Nutrition

We will strive to expand the range of our products to ensure that, nutritious satisfying options are available to meet every taste whilst at the same time taking their place in a healthy balanced diet.

Our Policies

  • We have reduced the fat, saturated fat and salt levels of many of our products and will continue to seek opportunities to do so, whilst maintaining a broad range of products to appeal to all tastes. We support the Food Standards Agency’s programmes to reduce these levels, and since 2006 we have reduced saturated fat levels in our potato products by more than 70% and salt levels by more than 20%. We are on target to achieve the FSA salt reduction targets for 2012.
  • Many of our products are designed to meet the nutritional standards set for school food and we will continue to develop products to meet this need.

Principle: Responsible Advertising and Marketing

We will promote our products responsibly.

Our Policies

  • We wiil not
    • Create advertising, advergaming, promotional intiatives or other communication targeted directly to children under the age of 12;
    • Place advertisements in media targeted to children under the age of 12; and
    • Unfairly or inaccurately represent the nutritional value or benefits or our products.
  • All retail products’ labelling show the levels of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar, in line with the FSA traffic light and the industry GDA schemes
  • All products in both retail and food service carry a full eight point nutritional declaration

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EMPLOYEES – Responsible Directors - Manufacturing and Human Resources

Our employees are our most valuable asset and we continually invest in our workforce to ensure it remains an industry leading team. Employing over 2,000 in the UK, we are a valued employer in the Scarborough, Whittlesey, Hull, Grantham and Wombourne areas.

We ensure a safe and healthy working environment at all times and offer both our hourly and salary paid staff the opportunity to take part in a range of training schemes, NVQ and Degree courses. We want all our employees to realise their full potential.

Principle: Health & Safety

We are committed to safe and healthy working conditions for all employees, providing working conditions in line with regulations and industry best practice. We will continue to evaluate and report performance, striving for continual improvements.

The McCain Safety Management system is based on a best practice standard known as KES (Key Elements of Safety) employed by leading companies around the world and includes:

  • Management involvement;
  • Employee involvement;
  • Safety Policies and Procedures;
  • Safer Practices;
  • Planning for Safe Conditions;
  • Site Training Systems;
  • Failure Analysis; and
  • Performance Measurement

Our commitment to safety is demonstrated by the following beliefs and actions:

  • Nothing we do is worth getting hurt for
  • Safety can and must be managed
  • Every injury could and should have been prevented
  • We owe ourselves and each other a safe place to work

We are committed to achieving an injury-free workplace. In order to do that, we integrate safety into all aspects of our business and manage our affairs with the discipline that will lead to world-class performance.

Our Policies

  • Health & Safety Policy
  • Total Incident Rate is an internationally recognised measure of safety at work, being measured by the number or recorded incidents per 100 employees, per year. Our target is to achieve a total incident rate of less than 1 by 2012, which is world class standard and ultimately to reach zero TIR. Since 2005 When the rate was 2.96 we have successfully reduced it year on year, achieving a rating of 1.23 by June 2009.
  • Through McCain in Motion we aim to meet the physical activity, medical and well-being needs of our employees. McCain in Motion is McCain Foods’ global employee health and wellness programme with the goal of supporting McCain employees in their quests to lead healthier lives. This is accomplished by offering programmes and events providing information on healthy lifestyle choices, and ensuring that there is continuous support for our employees. “The only way to build a healthy company is through healthy people – I can’t think of anything more foundational to our developmental efforts than encouraging and promoting the health and well- being of each member of the McCain team – that is what McCain in Motion is all about. It starts with you”, said McCain Foods Limited President and CEO Dale Morrison.

Principle: Equal Opportunities & Diversity

We will promote equal opportunities and diversity within our workforce and do not tolerate any form of discrimination

Our Policies

  • Employment and development opportunities are available to all potential or current employees irrespective of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin or religious persuasion
  • We remunerate fairly according to skills and performance and with reference to competitive industry and local conditions
  • We will recruit, employ and promote employees on the sole basis of the qualifications and abilities needed for the work to be performed

Principle: Training and Development

Our Policies

  • We are dedicated to helping our employees to develop each individual’s skills and capabilities
  • We provide both our hourly and salary paid staff a range of training schemes ranging from management and leadership skills up to a management academy which is run in conjunction with Durham University
  • We encourage our staff to continue their education and training and offer funding towards further education courses
  • We will continue to offer a university scholarship programme to the children of all UK employees, providing financial assistance for up to 4 years.

Principle: Making a difference outside the workplace

We will encourage and sponsor our employees to take part in voluntary activities in the community

Our Policies

  • We will provide sponsorship to employees to take part in community projects and charity based activities.

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ENVIRONMENT – Responsible Directors – Manufacturing and Supply Chain

We are acutely aware of our responsibility to the countryside that provides us with our core product, the potato and we embrace the challenges currently facing British businesses to continually reduce the impact we have on the environment. By evaluating how our operations can be enhanced from farm to fork – sourcing, farming methods, energy supplies, distribution and waste management - we are committed to the continuous improvement of our performance in all aspects of our environmental impact.

Principle: Responsible and sustainable development

We will strive to reduce the environmental impacts of our operations, continually working to preserve the quality of the environment wherever we operate by minimising our impact on the land, water and air we use.

Our Policies

  • Environmental Policy
  • We will be establishing and measuring the environmental impacts of our operations, setting targets for performance improvement which will be audited on an annual basis
  • We are implementing environmental management systems to identify and manage environmental risks, obligations and opportunities, aimed at ISO 14000 standard accreditation.

Principle: Energy Management and responsible sourcing

We will continue to focus on maximising our energy efficiency, and where possible, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by developing and increasing our use of renewable energy.

Our Policies

  • We will aim to continuously reduce the amount of energy used in our manufacturing operations to produce every kilogram of our products by upgrading and installing more energy efficient plants
  • Our target for 2010 is to reduce energy use to 5.27MJ/kg from 5.44MJ/kg in 2009 and a peak of 8.22MJ/kg in 2002.
  • Our distribution operation is contracted to responsible companies who only use EURO 4 and 5 standard compliant trucks.
  • We will evaluate and invest in alternative sources of energy and advanced environmental technology where it makes sense to do so.
  • We have already installed and commissioned wind turbines and an anaerobic lagoon at one of our facitlities generating 80 million MJ of renewable energy in 2009 and targeted to generate 98 million MJ in 2010

Principle: Carbon Footprint

We will aim to continuously reduce the carbon footprint of our operations.

Our Policies

  • Through the targeted reductions in energy use, we are reducing the CO2 emissions associated with our manufacturing facilities. Our target is to reduce emissions from 113,000 tonnes CO2e in 2009 to 107,000 tonnes in 2010. We are currently on track to achieve this reduction
  • Through the targeted reductions in nitrogen fertilizer use in potato cultivation, we are reducing the CO2e (Nitrous Oxide) emissions associated with the agricultural part of our operations. Nitrous Oxide is a green house gas 300 times more potent than CO2.

Principle: Water Reduction

We will aim continuously to reduce the amount of water used in producing every kilogram of our products

Our Policies

  • Our target for 2010 is to reduce water use from 8.8 litres/kg in 2009, to 8.2 litres/kg. At year to date we are achieving this reduction.

Principle: Waste Management

We will, wherever possible, continuously eliminate, reduce, re-use or recycle waste from our operations to eradicate waste to landfill.

Our Policies

  • We will target through our internal McCain Competitive Edge (MCE) system the elimination/reduction of process waste
  • Ultimately, our aim is to send zero food and packaging waste to landfill by 2015, in line with the Food & Drink Federation’s 5-Fold Ambition target. Through the reduction in waste generation and increased recycling, no food and packaging waste has been sent to landfill since September 2009 resulting in the reduction from our final 2008 performance figure of 1.18 kg of waste/tonne of production, itself a very low figure, to our present year to date performance figure of just 34 grams/tonne of production.
  • We are investigating opportunities to separate waste streams to permit recycling of components and to divert waste from by-product or co-product to potential energy source.

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COMMUNITY – Responsible Directors – Marketing & Corporate Affairs

McCain is a family company and understands the importance of the communities in which we operate. This is central to our operations and we actively support local schools, theatres, sports activities and charities financially.

By supporting associations and charities at both local and national level, and by actively engaging with them on issues relating to our operations, we strive to build meaningful and lasting relationships of mutual benefit and trust.

Principle: Understanding local issues

We recognise our responsibility as a key member of the communities in which we operate and will consult with local stakeholders on local issues wherever possible.

Our Policies

  • We will engage with community stakeholders on environmental issues with a view to developing effective and sustainable practices
  • Our target for 2010 is to contact and poll the opinions of our various stakeholders, to establish shared issues which we can engage upon to resolve and identify common goals to achieve.
  • We have an ongoing investment plan across all our UK sites in order to ensure the most up-to-date technology is in place to minimise any potential noise or odour emissions

Principle: Spreading the ‘It's All Good' Philosophy

We want to spread the It’s All Good’ message, which we view as a fundamental operating principal that extends to advancing the well-being of our communities, encouraging and enabling prosperity, good health and better education, by committing resources to national or locally targeted programmes.

Our Policies

  • Athletics4Life. We believe that offering the public the chance to become more active is a natural fit withour commitment to offer healthier dietary option, so in 2008 we entered into a £10m partnership with UK Athletics over a 5-year period. Half of that investment is going to support grassroots athletics, helping to develop the champions of tomorrow and the remainder is being spent on our ‘Track and Field’ campaign to help raise the public profile of athletics and provide opportunities for the public to try out athletics for themselves.

    Track and Field has two aspects. On one level a series of family-friendly Track and Field Roadshows, held in city centres and hosted by Sally Gunnell and athletes from Team GB, allows the public to try out low impact versions of track and field events, learn about healthy living and find out how to become more involved in athletics in their home area. On another level, a significant part of our funding is being used to extend and support McCain Athletics Networks, which enable local athletics clubs to group together and benefit from better infrastructure, improved training facilities and promotion. We believe this investment in grass roots athletics will bring long term benefits to existing young athletes while also encouraging new entrants to have a go. Last year our funding was matched by investment from Sport England.
  • Partnering with the Royal Agricultural College and Askham Bryan College near York, we have endowed scholarships for promising first-year students which provide financial support, work experience and a placement with McCain. The first students to benefit from the scholarships in September 2009, will be joined by further undergraduates over the coming years as the scholarship scheme is taken up by a new generation interested in farming and the food industry.
  • There is growing concern in society regarding children’s lack of knowledge about where their food comes from. When we heard in 2006 that one in three children did not know that chips were made from potatoes, we decided to help educators by developing The Potato Story.

    This interactive web-based resource aims to help kids understand how potatoes grow and get from the farmers field to their fork, including tips on how to construct a balanced diet. The Potato Story directly supports Key Stage 2 Science, with links to other National Curriculum elements. The site has had over 500,000 visits since 2007 and has been rated ‘excellent’ by 98% of teachers. In support of the website we have also developed the Potato Bus – a touring resource which has visited 130 primary schools and brought the Potato Story to life for 17,000 pupils who have met a ‘farmer’ and a ‘ccok’ and got ‘hands-on’ with real potatoes.

Principle: Enabling our employees

We recognize that our employees and their families have lives beyond McCain: they have talents and interests of their own and many are forces for change and good in their local communities. We want to encourage our people to maximise their full potential and act as positive role models.

Our Policies

  • Employees taking part in local voluntary activities can apply for a ‘Community Grant’, up to the value of £500 to help finance a project or undertaking on behalf of the organization involved.
  • Any employee wishing to raise sponsorship money for a charity by undertaking some physical challenge on their behalf can apply for matched funding, whereby McCain will match existing pledges £for£ up to a maximum of £250.
  • Teams of employees wishing to undertake voluntary projects in the community can apply for a grant of up to £500 in support of the project.
  • Employees who have children with particular aptitude or talents in the areas of sport, arts or sciences, can apply on their behalf for a ‘Bright Futures’ award of up to £250 to help meet the costs of additional structured tuition, training and/or equipment.

These opportunities for employees to raise funds for voluntary activities in the community are new, but already since their introduction late in 2009 over £3,500 has already been donated from the McCain Community fund Principle: Supporting charities, good causes and community projects in our local areas We aim to support applications for funding on behalf of local charities, good causes and community projects, particularly in the areas of health, youth and education, and active or taking place within a 20 mile radius of any of our facilities. This initiative, since its introduction in late 2009 has already resulted in almost £10,000 being donated.

Stakeholder Consultation

We believe that we have arrived at a comprehensive list of issues relating to our business activities, which we are addressing to ensure that we are conducting that business responsibly, not only for the benefit of our Company, but also in the interests of our many internal and external stakeholders. However, to be sure that we are addressing those issues of the greatest concern, we are consulting our stakeholders to poll their opinions. Based on our stakeholder’s responses we will finalise our list of issues and, where any stakeholders have expressed the wish to do so, we will engage with them to agree common objectives and the means of achieving them. In addition, we will regularly update these pages to demonstrate our progress.

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