Modern Slavery Statement

Background & Supply Chain

Lily's Kitchen was founded in 2008 and was created for a very special border terrier, Lily. When she developed a skin condition and conventional treatments did little to improve her illness, our founder Henrietta decided to try nursing Lily back to health with proper, nutritious, home-cooked meals. Lily soon recovered and along with the help of vets and pet nutritionists, a range of recipes using natural, wholesome ingredients was created.

Today, we make many more recipes but follow the same principles as when Henrietta first started. We use proper meat and offal, and vibrant fruit and veg to make our recipes for both dogs and cats. We want to do the very best we can for their well-being and happiness.

We also want to do the very best we can for our people, those in our office and in our supply chain. We first certified as a B Corp back in 2015 when there were just 1,200 B Corps worldwide. Now there are over 9,800. We believe in using business as a force for good, therefore use the B Corp framework to guide our decision making across all areas of the business.

Lily’s Kitchen works with an outsourced supply chain, meaning the factories which prepare our recipes are independently owned and carefully selected by our Lily’s Kitchen team.

In our work so far, we’ve seen no evidence of either modern slavery or human trafficking within our business, supply chains or the supply chains of our suppliers. But we know that this issue is extensive and very often concealed, so we’ll continue to focus on protecting and respecting all the people involved in making our proper food.

Our Policies and Due Diligence

We expect that the businesses that we work with will meet the same standards that we set for our own business. As such, all our manufactures and warehousing suppliers have agreed contracts which include meeting the standards outlined within our Supplier Code of Conduct. This includes commitments to comply to local, national and international standards (whichever is strongest) related to child labour, forced labour, harassment and disciplinary procedures, discrimination, freedom of association & collective bargaining, wages and benefits, working hours and health and safety. 100% of our manufacturing and warehousing partners have accepted and signed our code and we continue to work closely with them, having regular reviews and onsite visits.

Before Lily’s Kitchen starts working with any new manufacturing partner, we audit the company to ensure that it is acting in compliance with local employment legislation and our Supplier Code of Conduct as well as asking them to complete a Social and Environmental SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire). This audit is completed every year for our existing suppliers by our trained in-house auditors.

In addition to this, Lilys Kitchen is a member of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX). SEDEX is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to responsible and ethical business practices. We require that all our manufacturing and logistics partners are members of SEDEX and connect with Lilys Kitchen as well as being externally audited to SMETA 4 pillar audit once every 2 years minimum. This will allow us to manage any risk within our operations and identify potential non-conformances.

If we identify any audit non-conformance or improvement opportunity, we will work with the supplier to achieve compliance, or this could lead to us terminating our relationship with them. We reserve the right not to work with any supplier who does not adhere to our principles.

Our Team

Lily’s Kitchen prides itself in going above and beyond the standard business requirements for employers. We are committed to fostering open and inclusive workplaces that are based upon recognised worker and human rights, where all employees and partners are valued, engaged and respected in line with our values.

To keep our people safe and protected at work, we have a number of different policies that everyone signs-up to as a Lily’s Kitchen employee. These policies are available for all Lily’s Kitchen employees to access at any time they are required.

We have an employee code of business conduct, a health & safety policy and procedures, recruitment guidelines, disciplinary guidelines, grievance procedures and a whistleblowing policy along with a confidential reporting helpline, SpeakUp. Staff can report any suspected wrongdoing confidentially and anonymously through this helpline, including human rights violations such as modern slavery or human trafficking. All possible reports are recorded, and issues raised are investigated, tracked and monitored.

Training & Communication

As part of our onboarding process, Lily’s Kitchen employees are made aware of all policies and procedures, including this statement on our approach to Modern Slavery.

Every employee of Lily’s Kitchen is expected to adhere to all UK employment laws and to uphold all relevant workers’ rights as outlined above and is aware of this responsibility. Staff failing to do this may face disciplinary action which could result in immediate suspension or termination of employment.

Looking Ahead

Over the next year, our focus is to make sure we are linked with all our manufacturing partners on SEDEX and that they are externally audited to a SMETA 4 pillar audit, so we have increased transparency of our supply chain. This will continue to give us visibility of their labour standards, health & safety standards, environmental commitments and business ethics.