Merchant Gourmet’s principle activity is to market and distribute globally sourced and imported foods to the Retail sector. The company’s head office is based in the UK.

Our approach to Slavery and Human trafficking

At all levels of management, sensitivity, and awareness of such activity are paramount when liaising with our suppliers both in the UK and around the world.

The company understands the negative impact surrounding modern slavery and human trafficking both to those individuals directly affected by this horrendous activity and on those organisations, that allow such behaviour.

Here at Merchant Gourmet, employees are expected to report any such concerns to management so they in turn can act accordingly.

Our Supply Chain

Our supply chain includes the provisioning of raw materials and finished foodstuffs from approximately 12 different countries.

All suppliers ethical trading status are reviewed during the process of initial approval before commencing supply. It is monitored as a part of ongoing supplier performance review. This approach ensures there are no practices taking place that contravene our own policy relating to slavery and human trafficking.

Due Diligence to counter Slavery and Human Trafficking

All our employees are based within one of our UK sites. All our employees have a written contract of employment and have access to the employee’s handbook. When recruiting staff, this is undertaken directly by a permanent member of Merchant Gourmet staff.  Agencies are only used to identify candidates and face to face interviews are undertaken by trained Merchant Gourmet employees to ensure the potential employee has a permit to work within the UK and is doing so voluntarily.

All our employees can see information which the company holds on their behalf (training record, appraisal, development plan).

This statement is made in relation to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes the company’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the current financial year 2021/22.

Richard Peake, Managing Director

Merchant Gourmet Ltd