Tiger Brands

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its regular and ongoing stakeholder engagement activities as well as the engagement channels for each stakeholder group.

Sustainable development strategy
The company reports consistently against all its targets. It is committed to significantly reduce its environmental footprint through foundational practices and innovative solutions. It reports reductions in absolute energy use, electrical energy intensity, absolute direct GHG emissions, and GHG emissions intensity. It also reports the percentage of its portfolio that meets nutritional standards.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company reduces its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it has set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions, and reports its progress towards achieving them.

Food loss and waste
The company’s FLW reduction targets align with SDG 12.3, targeting a 50% reduction by 2030, as outlined in its Food Loss and Waste Voluntary Agreement.

Plastic use and packaging waste
The company demonstrates its commitment to reducing plastic use and transitioning towards sustainable packaging through its policies and activities. Additionally, it discloses quantitative data on plastic use reduction and the utilization of sustainable packaging.

Water withdrawal
The company takes steps to reduce water withdrawal in its own operations. It also reports approximately 74% withdrawal in water-stressed areas.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company discloses it has adopted Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) and the Eat Well Live Well (EWLW) stamp-of-approval on-pack labelling.

Responsible marketing
The company discloses that 10.2% of its total marketing spending in 2022 was used on promoting healthier and more nutritious food options.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion area.

Act ethically
Tiger Brands has a policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption. It also includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. To ensure accountability, the company has established a grievance mechanism enabling stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints related to bribery and corruption. Moreover, the company reinforces its ethical stance by explicitly stating that it does not make political contributions.

Provide and promote decent work
The company discloses a publicly available policy in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers. It also publicly expects its business relationships to prioritize worker health and safety in a policy statement. Additionally, the company provides insights into the age of its board members, executive committee, and workforce demographics. Moreover, it discloses the percentages of women in various workforce categories, while also setting a clear time-bound goal of achieving 50% female representation by 2050.

Respect human rights
The company publicly commits to respecting human rights and ILO core labor rights through its policy statements. It also expects suppliers to uphold these rights, as stated in a policy statement.

To ensure accountability, the company provides a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers. On visiting its whistleblowing service website, it is clear that the channel is accessible to all external individuals and communities to make a report and there is a choice for the complainant to either remain anonymous or identify themselves.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
The company discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability performance but can further link this policy to enhancements in nature-related objectives and social issues. While stating that the board of directors has the expertise in sustainability, there is an opportunity for the company to disclose whether its highest governance body has specific expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Lobbying and advocacy
The company has an opportunity to disclose a list of trade associations of which it is a member. Furthermore, it could provide a clear and detailed framework for assessing the alignment of these trade associations with its sustainability targets and report any potential misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and its sustainability targets.

Sustainable development strategy
The company has an opportunity to disclose its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability topics and impacts. Furthermore, while the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and nutrition, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The company has the opportunity to align its scope 1 and 2 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to reduce its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and disclose a time-bound target to achieve this reduction. Furthermore, the company can report progress against these scope 3 targets, as well as align its scope 3 emissions targets with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Food loss and waste
While the company commits to reducing FLW, it could set associated targets and measure progress against its targets.

Water withdrawal
The company has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and reports progress against the target. While the company states that it plans to work with suppliers to reduce water withdrawal, it has an opportunity to report and provide evidence of its engagement processes.

Availability of nutritious foods
The company provides examples of reformulated products. However, there is potential for improvement in reporting its overall efforts to reduce sugar, salt, and fat, and/or increase the presence of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains in its entire portfolio. Additionally, there is an opportunity for the company to adopt a nutrient profiling system and to set a sales-based target to increase the proportion of more nutritious products.

Clear and transparent labelling
The company has an opportunity to disclose the percentage of products/menus for which its front-of-pack labelling schemes have been rolled out.

Food safety
While the company discloses that the majority of its manufacturing units, with the exception of three, are certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme, it has an opportunity to extend the certifications to 100% of its own operations. Additionally, the company can disclose the percentage of food suppliers certified to a GFSI-recognized food safety scheme.

Responsible marketing
The company has an opportunity to provide evidence of marketing activities to promote heathier and more nutritious food options in accordance with a government-endorsed or externally-validated nutritional guidelines. Moreover, while the company states that it is a signatory to the South African Marketing to Children Pledge, there is also an opportunity for it to disclose a responsible marketing policy specifically tailored to children that is aligned with international codes and guidelines and applicable across all media channels.

Child labour
The company has an opportunity to disclose examples of remediation programmes when a case of child labour is found in its operations and to indicate how it is building the capacity of its suppliers to prevent child labour impacts. While the company prohibits its suppliers from using child labour, it could require them to have an age-verification system in place.

Farmer and fisher livelihoods
The company has an opportunity to identify living income benchmarks and assess living income gaps for some commodities and regions. Also, it could adopt procurement practices and develop supply chain relationships that improve farmers’ income resilience.

Forced labour
The company has the opportunity to disclose forced labour requirements for its operations and supply chain. Specifically, it could prohibit the payment of recruitment fees, the retention of workers’ personal documents, and the restriction of workers’ freedom of movement. Furthermore, it could provide evidence of how it builds the capacity of its suppliers to prevent forced labour impacts.

Land rights
The company has an opportunity to disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights. Furthermore, it could describe a process at its operations and supply chain level to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders when acquiring, leasing or making other arrangements to use land and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Living wage
The company has an opportunity to set a target for paying a living wage across its direct suppliers and describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it sources. Also, it could disclose the percentage of workers across its own operations or suppliers that are paid a living wage.

Act ethically
While the company discloses that it conducts anti-corruption due diligence, it has an opportunity to enhance transparency by detailing the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts, specifically related to its own operations.

Additionally, the company could strengthen its governance by adopting a policy outlining its approach to lobbying and political engagement. To provide a comprehensive view of its practices, the company could consider disclosing its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to detail its supplier health and safety monitoring approach. While acknowledging fair compensation, committing to a living wage with a clear target and explaining the determination process would strengthen its stance. Describing support for suppliers’ living wage payment reinforces the commitment.

In the pursuit of gender equality and women’s empowerment, the company could publicly express its commitment in a formal policy document. The company could also disclose the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce.

Respect human rights
While the company highlights its due diligence approach, it could provide more details about the actual process of identifying human rights risks and impacts. Moreover, the company can elaborate on its methods for identifying human rights risks across its supply chain and specific locations or activities.

Although the company outlines its process for assessing human rights risks, it could further elaborate on its identified salient human rights concerns and disclose the outcomes of its human rights risk assessment. Additionally, the company could disclose a comprehensive global system aimed at addressing, preventing, and mitigating its identified salient human rights issues.