Our approach to CR

Prior to the demerger of Home Retail Group from parent company GUS plc in October 2006, CR was governed by the GUS plc board and the policy frameworks that we followed generally applied to the whole of the GUS Group. The separation of Home Retail Group created an opportunity to ground our CR strategies more firmly within a retail context and we have spent the months since demerger reviewing and renewing our strategy and strengthening our commitment to being a responsible retailer.

We believe being a ‘responsible retailer’ means understanding and meeting the general expectations which mainstream stakeholders have of the retail sector which can often mean having to balance their competing demands.

For Home Retail Group, we believe our key responsibilities are:

• Serving customers to their complete satisfaction
• Providing a working environment that is conducive to the recruitment and retention of the widest possible range of talented staff
• Providing a safe and healthy place of work
• Providing products of the appropriate quality, including responsible product sourcing and retailing, product safety and reliability
• Encouraging responsible labour, environmental and social practices in the Group's supply chain
• Improving the Group's environmental performance, principally our use of energy, the impact of our transport fleet and materials use and waste management
• Developing strong community relationships in support of our business objectives

In our pursuit of achieving these responsibilities, we take a three step approach:

Step one: We embed CR practices throughout the Group so that they become 'Business as Usual'. Examples can be seen in our drive to reduce operating costs through energy and fuel efficiency and also in our employee training, development of future talent and health and safety management.

Step two: We understand and comply with stakeholder expectations to be a responsible retailer. We recognise that 'compliance' is more than just meeting the letter of the law, and so we plan to be always alert to public opinion in order to retain and develop trust in our brands. Examples of these practices can be seen in our product selection and stewardship policies.

Step three: Over and above our stakeholder expectations, we will develop specific CR initiatives that complement and contribute to our business strategy. In this way we can fully align our CR credentials with our brand values to achieve mutual commercial and social benefits.

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