Social Report 2022

Page 23

www.thewoodygroup.com SOCIAL REPORT 2022

2022 was again a year full of challenges. But instead of loosing energy to short term problems, we focus on the long term. At The Woody Group we have a formula to deal with the future: We question ourselves “Is our product sustainable? Do we have sustainable relationships with our workers, suppliers and customers?”

Consciously curated by Nelle Matthys, Production & CSR manager

Supported by Studio D

Approved by Steven Van de Velde, Managing Director

This paper reports on the period of January 2022 to January 2023. The images used in this report may be subject to copyright.

“ ”
Thinking this way made us stronger and resilient against crises.
Mehmet Batur
CEO
Bella Tekstil/Tekumut and The Woody Group

Content

About The Woody Group

Summary: goals & achievements in 2022

1. Our sourcing strategy

1.1. Human rights due diligence

Our Brand Responsibility Conduct Policy Risk assessment

1.2. Sourcing process Production countries

Organization of the sourcing department Pricing

Production cycle in sourcing

1.3. Supplier relations

The impact of extreme inflation in Turkey

Our living wage project

1.4. Integration of monitoring activities in sourcing decisions

2. Monitoring & remediation

2.1. FWF Code of Labour Practices

2.2. Audits & Corrective Action Plans

2.3. Employee survey @ Tekumut

3. Complaints procedure

4. Training & capacity building

5. Transparency & communication Information management

Our supplier list

FWF Leader status

6. Corporate Responsability

About The Woody Group

We are aMultiBrandCo mpanyspecializinginHigh Quality HomeandNightWearforWomen,MenandChildren.

TheWoodyGroup’sflagshipbrandisWoody.ALeaderinhomeandnightwearsince 1993.Woodyoffers Fun,Wholesome andCheekyDesigns fortheWholeFamily. Woody is a happy and colorfulbrand.We care about animals whichis whywe haveanimalimprints on ourpyjamas.

The Woody Group’s brand lordsx lilies is known for its typical Belgian attention to detail in übersoft fabrics! It is your go-to for super comfortable & elegant home-, night- and leisurewear with fresh & feminine contemporary design. lordsxlilies is your go-to partner to escape the daily rush of life. We believe that feel-good downtime is necessary to cope with our busy lives. Busy busy? We know the feeling… that's why we occasionally push the pause button, we slow down and slow down to come back to ourselves.

AtWoody, we care about children, animals and sleep
Highlights Organization Own shops in BE 7 +/- 600000 Articles sold 0,6 M +/- 300 retailers Carryingthebrand 300 Styling & production Customer service Sales & retail Marketing & CSR IT-department Finance & Accounting Human resource MEHMET BELLA TEKSTIL BATUR OWNERCEO TURKEY Finance & Accounting Knitting devision Fabric warehouse Accessories warehouse Cutting department Embroidery & printing Stitching department Finishing & ironing Packing & warehouse Dispatch department Logistics department Human resource Finance & Accounting IT-department Sales department Marketing department Styling & modeling Production & CSR Logistics & warehouse Customer service Human resource STEVEN VAN DE VELDE THE WOODY GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR BELGIUM STEVEN VAN DE VELDE WOODY RETAIL MANAGING DIRECTOR BELGIUM Woody Store Antwerpen Woody Store Knokke Woody Store Gent Woody Store Brugge Woody & lxl BOTé Woody Outlet Zonhoven Woody Store Hasselt HAKAN ÖZSEN TEKUMUT MANGING DIRECTOR TURKEY

Summary: goals & achievements

Covid was still influencing our sourcing in China, the entire industry was confronted with volatile price increases in raw materials and transport, the e xtreme inflation waves in our main production country Turkey don’t seem to stop, and on top of that, our factory in Turkey (Duzce) was hit by a moderate earthquake .

°For the second year in a row, we conducted a worker survey to ask the workers of Tekumut about the working conditions, whether they think they are earning a living wage and how they rate the social dialogue in the company.

°We organized new audits and Corrective Action Plan meetings

It has not stopped us from continuing to focus on our social sustainability goals. In 2022, we received the FWF ‘Leader’ status. We wear this title with pride and are firmly convinced that we want to continue to live up to this title as well as possible. Our fair wear highlights of 2022:

°We invested consciously in a Responsible Business Conduct Policy , which gives an overview of our principles, practices and requirements in order to ensure ethic and responsible sourcing of our products.

°We made up a risk analysis at country and supplier level.

°We continued our living wage project at Bella Tekstil-Tekumut , producing partner in The Woody Group

°We also discussed living wages with our Indian supplier

°We invested in social dialogue trainings for management and worker representatives

°We gave the necessary follow-up to worker complaints.

We are proud of what we have accomplished so far, and by continuing our practical approach to sustainability , we will take further steps to take up a leading position in the nightwear and homewear industry. In the coming years, the focus will be on adapting the business model to future challenges and to take an active part in working towards more circularity .

The Woody Group is a member of

In 2022, we received the FWF ‘Leader’ status. We wear this title with pride and are firmly convinced that we want to continue to live up to this title as well as possible.

“ ”

1. Our sourcing strategy

We are convinced that responsible sourcing is a lever for sustainable business, so in our sourcing strategy, we invest in human rights due diligence, a transparent and fair sourcing process, constructive and long term supplier relations and the integration of monitoring activities in sourcing decisions.

1.1 Human rights due diligence Our Brand Responsibility Conduct Policy

For a long time it has been Woody’s ambition to attach great importance to put sustainability and responsibility central in our business operations. To make this also more explicit to our stakeholders, we made up a Responsible Business Conduct Policy, which gives an overview of our principles, practices and requirements in order to ensure ethic and responsible sourcing of our products.

Our principles for responsible business and sourcing are:

°Every worker in our supply chain deserves a safe, healthy and fair workplace

°We opt for environmentally friendly production processes to minimize our impact on the environment and climate change

°Business relations are based on good governance, responsibility, integrity, respect, and maintaining high ethical standards.

Starting from these principles, our Responsible Business Conduct Policy specifies what social and environmental responsibility means to us, where we see possible related risks in our supply chains and how we assess, mitigate and prevent supply chain risks. This policy was signed by our Managing

Directors in Belgium and Turkey, and all employees and suppliers of The Woody Group are informed about this Brand Responsibility Conduct Policy. The Woody Group trusts its own staff to take responsibility in their work and expects from its business partners that they do the same.

Risk assessments

As we engage to in our Responsible Business Conduct Policy, we made up a risk analysis per country as well as at supplier level. Based on the audit information we have available per supplier, we have a good overview of the risk levels related to environment, human rights & ethics, worker rights and governance. We engage ourselves to make up a yearly update of this risk analysis. For example for Turkey, we had to arise the risk level for safety, as there is an actual higher frequency of earthquakes in the country.

1.2 Sourcing process

In 2022 our brands were carried by +/- 300 retailers in Europe and Turkey. Above that we also have 6 of our own stores, all located in Flanders, Belgium. All the products in our assortment have been designed by our styling team in Belgium. Both of our brands are working with spring/summer and winter/autumn collections.

Our sourcing strategy

Production countries

2022 was (again) a special year for The Woody Group. As covid was still current in China, and prices for transport exceptionally high, we moved some production from China to Turkey. But the extreme inflation waves in Turkey also drove up prices, so China stays an important production country for The Woody Group, as well as India. We managed to continue our sourcing, production and sales in the best possible way. Our volumes decreased slightly in 2022.

As every year, our goal was to keep our supply chain as consolidated as possible . All of our brands have only a small number of suppliers, giving us a good overview of our supply chain. In 2022, there were some changes in our supplier base.

As usual, 85 percent of our products were produced by our main partner Bella Tekstil-Tekumut i n Turkey , who has produced for The Woody Group for more than 10 years and who became a partner of our company group. The factory is specialized in knits, a material widely used in our flagship brand’s Woody pyjamas. They are also very trustworthy, agile and have fast reaction times. The factory is for 100 percent producing for our brand.

and super soft polyester quality, socks or toys. For our Chinese suppliers even our biggest orders are very small as the scale is not comparable. So often we have to add up on our orders to reach their minimum order quantities, which is not always workable.

In 2022, due to covid it was still not possible to travel to China plus transport costs have increased exponentially, which made us decide to move some of the styles to Turkey. We also had to say goodbye to one of our suppliers, as collaboration over the past years became more and more difficult: we had to work through an intermediary and after asking several times, there was no opening for receiving an audit report or organizing an audit. This supplier visited our head quarters last year, we explained our decision openly. As our order quantities were small for this supplier, there was no direct effect on the factory workers.

In China we have most suppliers all together making 11% of our production volumes. In this country we have the challenge to deal with small order quantities for specific Woody items, like warm winter fabrics made in fluffy

Turkey 85% China 11% India 4% PRODUCTIONCOUNTRIES

Our sourcing strategy

Since 2018 The Woody Group is also sourcing in India, where we have only 1 supplier. This producer is very committed to implementing and maintaining FWF’s COLP, which is part of TWG’s official Suppliers Handbook. Because of their motivation and the presence of another FWF member, TWG has the trust to build long term relationship at this supplier. When they informed us that they started to use a subcontractor for our production, we asked them to sign the FWF Code of Labor Practices, to fill in the FWF questionnaire and for an available audit report.

Organization of the sourcing department

All our company sourcing decisions are made by our Production & CSR Manager and the Collection & Planning Manager. They always visit a location before we start a business relationship and conduct interim visits throughout the relationship.

This in-person interaction and visits are an important cornerstone of TWG’s strategy of responsible sourcing. We always prefer to work directly with our suppliers without any intermediates, to keep close contact with our product. When our company is in search for a new supplier, we look at multiple parameters such as the quality of the workmanship, price-quality ratio, CSR engagement of the supplier and possible risks in the production countries. We ask new suppliers to sign the FWF Code of Labour Practices, to fill in the FWF questionnaire and in our due diligence process we use a risk list and we check available audit reports.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing and making sure our buying prices are fair, our company’s strategy is quite simple. We have a good knowledge about pricing due to our vertical integration. Our suppliers are familiar with our products and order quantities, so they set their prices accordingly. If a supplier says that our MOQ is too low we pay an extra fee. In general TWG also pays 30% deposit to finance the material purchase.

2022 was an extremely challenging year in terms of pricing, as the costs for wages, transport and raw materials were exploding. It forced us to have a good overview of garments cost breakdown and more price transparency. We continued to experiment with the FWF fair price app, we believe in the potential to use it in a structural way in the future.

“ ”
Nelle Matthys, Production and CSR
“We experimented with the FWF fair price app, which seems a very interesting tool to us.”

Our sourcing strategy

Production cycle in sourcing

Although we make night- and homewear we also follow the functionality of the seasons and have new collections twice a year. If we make special capsule collection as for X-mas we take them in the pre-sales system. We actively limit our financial risk and manage very closely eventual overstock.

Our collection is most of the time based on the same quantity of styles in the same well-known quality fabrics. Functionality and style repeats make our collections and quantities therefor very predictable. This is important to prevent excessive overtime for workers. Each supplier makes his own collections which are presented during the sales season in our TWG showrooms. These samples are delivered with an according price quotation. So suppliers have all the knwoledge to make a very correct pricecalculation. Quotations are requested including living wage calculation.

One month before the final orders, right after a 50% sales is reached we prepare forecast orders. All suppliers can well organize the fabric planning and the capacity for their CMT-production lines, based on a realistic estimation of quantities and volume.

transport times of another 60 days. India has longer leadtimes from 90 till 120 but a shorter transportation time of 45 days. With all these parameters in mind we try our best to get our productions in time at the shops.

With our productionpartner Tekumut in Turkey we work hand in hand to have the work done. It's a full partnership in which our computer systems are exchanging information. They have full access to our PLM-system and have software to make their production planning following the arrival of the materials. Furthermore, if there are any delays, they have the power to adjust the delivery date directly, which is adapted automatically in our reporting file. This means they have final control on deliveryterms.

As Turkey is very near to Europe the transportation time is quit short, this makes it the supplier with the best lead time being 60 days. The fact that they can deliver by truck they are almost weekly delivering directly to our B2B customers.

In summary our production cycle embeds very strong points of our business model:

This is the moment that in some cases there is negotation for small order quantities. This is also the period that all technical details and fitting shapes are approved. Suppliers in China have leadtimes from 60 till 90 days and SEA

°the pre-sales system is providing us a low risk bulk order °experienced long term suppliers are specialized in our functional products °high quality materials are very well chosen and help efficient production °only produce sold garments is avoiding unused stocks and left overs

Our sourcing strategy

Although we can trust on this regular production cycle for many years, during the last audit in December 2022, overtime was mentioned as a bottleneck in our Turkish factory. Workers complained about stress and a disturbed holiday planning. We will follow up on this complaint and see how we can adjust

the production planning to lower stress: our procurement manager will make an updated analysis of the workflows and will make a proposal on adjusted workflows and delivery times from order to delivery with insights of the QRM and lean system.

1.3 Supplier relations

We have a very small number of suppliers within our supply chain and most relationships take longer than five years. With all our suppliers, we have very regular contacts, by digital communication, but we also try to visit the factories on a regular basis. Our procurement manager visits the factory in Turkey every month. When it is allowed again, also our Asia partners will be visited again.

Long-term and constructive supplier relations will remain our philosophy, although we had to decide to stop working with one of our long-term Chinese suppliers – as explained before because of quality issues and no willingness to be transparent on social issues. FWF membership ensures that we always remain attentive on the quality of our supplier relations and on new insights in the social context of our producers. Recently, we made up a risk analysis at supplier level, which keeps us aware of the possible risks.

Mrs. Özgül Senol Production manager sharing information with different departments

Our sourcing strategy

The impact of extreme inflation in Turkey

In Belgium, inflation increased significantly in 2022, but in Turkey inflation reached extreme levels like never seen before. The weak Turkish lira translated into extremely high inflation because

imports of energy, food products and semi-finished goods for industry became more expensive. This situation affected the living costs of our workers in Turkey, so several wage increases have been implemented. Inflation is reflected in the living wage.

Our living wage project

We continued our dialogue with the management of Bella Tekstil-Tekumut on living wages. In 2020, we started to create more transparency in the wages of the different worker categories and we had a first insight in pay slips. Now, we have regular meetings, live or by Microsoft Teams, to follow up on the wages, especially in the context of the Turkish inflation situation. The management of Tekumut is anticipating all the time to the current economic situation and offers further transparency. We have a good and updated overview of the evolution of net-brut wages, financial bonuses, transport and food bonuses offered to the workers.

A first wage increase of 60% was realized in February 2022, a second one in

July 2022 of 30%. In 2022 extreme high inflation was measured in Turkey. This resulted in a total wage increase of 136% for our workers between Jan. 2022 and Jan. 2023. We could see that the local living wages in Duzce have increased with 133%. Despite the difficult situation, the ambition to pay viable wages remained. We compared the actual wages of the workers with the local living wage based on the living cost in Duzce.

As Duzce is a rural province we could determine that living cost is 27.5% lower than the average living cost in Turkey.

As living cost is used to estimate living wage it means that Duzce local living wage is 27.5% of the average Turkish living wage spearheaded by Turk-is, the national trade union.

3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 Wageevolu onTekumutversuslocallivingwage
Tekumutwageincl.benefits AveragelivingwageinDuzce

Our sourcing strategy

Special extra benefit for workers @Tekumut

In 2021 the daycare center was installed on the business park of Tekumut in Duzce Turkey. Since many female workers struggle to find affordable childcare, this is a major advantage. A warm daycare house was completely new installed to welcome 8 kids. This was a huge succes and we count already 14 children in 2022. This initiative is an extra support for young families not only financially but it is also providing more family time.

Furthermore, our goal for 2022 was to dialogue with our India-supplier on living wages. So we explored the wage situation at Sunknit. We could not yet travel to India, but we discussed the topic by mail and video calls. Our Indian supplier makes a habit of visiting

their customers which builds a close relationship. As stated by a recent FWF audit, the factory is paying living wages to the workers, and the management confirmed that The Woody Group is paying its share of living wages for the workers.

Meeting in Ghent Mr. Samy and Mr. Mohan, management Sunknit

Our sourcing strategy

1.4 Integration of monitoring activities in sourcing decisions

Each new supplier needs to sign the FWF Code of Labor Practice and to fill in the questionnaire on production location data. A “due diligence check” will be done, based on country and/or specific risks and performed audit reports. If a new supplier refuses to sign or to post the Code of Labor Practices, or if he is not transparent on the production locations, we will not work with this supplier.

For other suppliers, if key issues are found during an audit or serious issues are reported within the complaint procedure, our company will immediately start an open discussion with the supplier to see how it can be solved, and which immediate actions are possible. A plan of action will be set up together with the supplier and followed very closely by The Woody group. Our company will stop placing orders in case of unwillingness to improve, unwillingness to negotiate and set up a corrective

action plan, or in case of refusal to take actions.

In 2022, we observe in the case of our Chinese supplier Desen that they are not open for auditing. As this is a long term partnership highly valued for good quality, we will follow up the evolution in 2023 closely.

Ravdee an agent with whom we have really good personal connection has visited us in the spring of 2022. We discussed openly that the orders of their specific woven items are too low for winter seasons. We have ordered 150 pieces as by their request for our last coöperation in winter 2022 as a bulkorder, as promised so.

Their contracting factory in China is also not open for auditing. We followed the FWF guidelines on responsible exit strategy. We had an open discussion with this supplier, we phased out, and we had a guarantee that workers were not disadvantages by our decision, as our leverage in this factory was really low.

2. Coherent system for monitoring and remediation

The Woody Group makes use of a coherent monitoring program, which includes factory audits, the follow up of corrective action plans, informing agents, manufacturers and their employees about the Code of Labor Practices, questionnaires, a complaints procedure for workers, and factory visits.

Even our head of IT, visiting Tekumut was invited to see where we hang the workersinformation sheet. Taking these values further than only production process. TWG internal staff is regularly briefed about FWF and proud of our social engagement.

2.1. FWF Code of Labor Practices

All our current producers have received a letter and a questionnaire to inform them about the FWF Code of Labor Practices, which implies international labor standards including human rights, labor rights, child labor, forced labor, working time, wages and compensation, working safety including health and safety.

By filling out and signing the questionnaire, they endorse the labor standards of the Code of Labor Practices. All current producers must display the Code of Labor Practices at the work floor in the local language, at a visible, private place for employees, where they can read it privately. During audits and during visits by The Woody Group staff, this is verified and followed up.

CSR is now a standard topic during all factory visits. In 2022, covid was still influencing our sourcing, We only had the chance to visit our factory in Turkey, which we do on a monthly basis. Chinese and Indian suppliers were contacted by mail, whatsapp and video calls. We also use a Health & Safety Checklist during factory visits. This is a useful tool to have a Health & Safety overview, and if there are points for improvement, these are quickly detected, named, and resolved.

Workersinformationsheet @ Wanshida China, sockproducer

Coherent system for monitoring and remediation

2.2 Audits and Corrective Action Plans

Audits are based on the FWF Code of Labor Practices. In the past three years, we organized audits at most of our main suppliers. Over 91% of The Woody Group’s production has being audited within the past three years.

At Tekumut, a new audit was conducted in November 2022. Some important points for attention came out of this audit:

- Some important remarks on fire safety in the building were made. As a follow up, the general manager of Tekumut went immediately in dialogue with the landlord of the building, to analyse status and remediation. The landlord is not willing to make all necessary investments, so we are still in the process of close follow up and searching for solutions.

- Some workers complainted about negative pressure of some production supervisors. To remediate this, we want an open social dialogue for all departments, organized in a more structural way, so workers can ventilate better. The objective is to have a monthly social dialogue between the management and the worker representatives, with a dialogue in two directions. The report will be posted so that alle workers can have the feeling that they are taking into account. Top management is 100 percent in favor of a more qualitative social dialogue, a Turkish FWF consultant will guide this

process in the upcoming year. Also leadership training will be provided for the middle management.

- Overtime and related stress were determined. Our procurement & CSR manager will make up an analysis and action plan to optimize workflows and delivery times. Hopefully it leads to more efficiency and less overtime.

- The audit mentioned that living wages were not in place. This was a very surprising finding for us, as Tekumut’s top management is fully convinced of our engagement towards fair and good working conditions. But here, the timing of the increasements of salaries is crucial, in a country were inflation is extreme and makes giant leaps in just a few weeks time. The audit took place in November 2022, just at the moment that legal minimum wages were raised by 55%, while inflation was around 85% at that moment. Tekumut increases the wages following Turkish habits in July and January. At the Brand Performance Check, we will show that wages in Tekumut are following the extreme evolutions that can sometimes differ from day to day. And we need to repeat that Duzce is a rural region which has a lower living cost than the average Turkish living cost.

Coherent system for monitoring and remediation

At Sunknit, our Indian supplier which makes 3.5% of our cotton volume, a FWF audit took place in November 2020. The audit took place under Covid-19 measures and despite this the report looked very positive. It was clearly written that salaries were covered during the lockdown periods. As we are 2 FWF-members producing at Sunknit, our collegues of a Germany based FWF member is taking the lead for following the CAP’s. We exchanges experiences and findings among FWF members, but we maintained also direct conversations with Sunknit on social topics, especially on living wages. Sunknit also obtained the GOTS-certification, which is reinforcing their ethical standards and provide us with organic cotton items. We will organize a new updated audit probably in 2023 or 2024.

Furthermore, from our Chinese factories making 11% of our garment production, we received updated BSCI and/or SEDEX audit reports. In particular for our toy supplier, we had a constructive dialogue with the supplier on CAP follow up. F.e. to avoid overtime, they recruited extra staff.

2.3 An employee survey @ Tekumut

In 2021, The Woody Group took the initiative for a worker satisfaction survey is its main production location, Bella Tekstil – Tekumut in Turkey, Duzce. The Worker Education Programme on Social Dialogue, organized in March 2022, gave rise to some complaints via

the FWF helpline. As a follow up to these complaints, the management of Tekumut decided to repeat the worker satisfaction survey, to have a good estimate of the complaints and to show the workers that their opion matters. 194 workers (ca 90% of the employees) responded to the survey, which contained 27 questions related to general satisfaction, safety & working conditions, their function, their wellbeing & worker participation and social dialogue. The paper questionnaires were sent to Studio D, and independent sustainability agency that analyzed the results.

The responses on the 27 questions you can find on the next page. It is visible that there is a value of repeating surveys so you can see if some parameters are changing and really go to rootcause analysis.

The overal feeling is that the very good feedback of the last year survey has dropped with 10% in general. The survey was introduced to the workers in September 2022, in the end of the peak season, just before holidays, and at a moment that extreme inflation played as a high stress factor. It was the wish of the management to have this survey in this moment to understand even better emotions of the workers at Tekumut.

Coherent system for monitoring and remediation

But a lot of the survey conclusions matched with the audit conclusions: there is a high level of satisfaction, but we can detect some important action points:

°Wellbeing of the employees need to stay a priority

°Explore how to prevent structural overtime for almost half of the employees

°Explore further causes for stress and possible solutions

°High level of health & safety satisfaction, but good ergonomics should be an attention point.

°There is a good level of working rela-

tions, but a significant part of the workers doesn’t feel appreciated by their supervisor

°A more intense social dialogue is advised

°The day care center for toddlers is a well appreciated initiative

The results were presented to the management and a follow up plan is discussed. The management is engaged to further improve and to repeat the survey in 2023 to measure progress.

Workfocus and cooperation @Tekumut

I am satisfied with my work

I am proud to work for this company

I would recommend family or friends to work here

I have no intention of changing jobs

I feel good at work

The management pays sufficient attention to the well-being of the employees I work regularly overtime

I experience stress at work

I experience NO stress at work

I feel safe at work

The necessary personal protection mechanisms for my job are available

My employer has not enough attention for ergonomics at my workplace

My abilities match with the work I do

My tasks are sufficiently clear

I get appreciation from my direct supervisor if I do my job well

If I have a problem, I can talk with my supervisor

I can regularly attend a training

We treat each other with respect in the workplace

There is a good collaboration among colleagues

There is sufficient consultation between management and employees

The management listens sufficiently to the concerns of employees

The employees are regularly informed about the performances of the company

I am satisfied with my salary

My salary sufficiently covers my living costs

I am NOT satisfied with the quality of the food that is offered by the company

I am satisfied with the transport services offered by the company

82% of the employees is satisfied or ve r where we pro

0%10%20%
202
survey evolution

between 2021 and 2022

r y satisfied with his/her work at Tekumut, duce over 85%

30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%
2 2021

3. Complaints procedure

The FWF complaints mechanism is an important system to give each individual worker their own voice if their rights are not respected. By following the procedure, a complaint about the employer can be submitted anonymously. This complaint is then investigated by FWF and well-founded complaints are communicated with the brand and asked for a satisfactory solution. All our suppliers have received the workers info sheet in the local language and displayed it in a visible place. They also shared pictures of this.

If a complaint arises, our general responsible for production handles this claim, in consultation with our external CSR advisor. Through close contact and open communication this can be

dealt with in an appropriate manner.

In 2022, for the first time we had to put this procedure in place. And more than once. After a training on social dialogue at Tekumut, several complaints were received through the FWF helpline: most of these were related to feelings of discrimination and mistrust by the middle management. A follow up to every complaint is discussed with the top management in Turkey, the procurement and CSR manager in Belgian, the external CSR advisor and FWF. Organizing a new worker satisfaction survey was one of the responses of the management. Furthermore, the engagement for a further professionalization of the social dialogue is an important next step.

4. Training & Capacity building

At Tekumut, after a Worker Education Program took place in 2021, a training on Social Dialogue took place in March 2022.

We will give follow up to this training, as the FWF expert will guide the factory through the set up process of a more professionalized internal social dialogue system. We are confident that with a better functioning internal social dialogue, the number of complaints by the FWF helpline will decrease.

To keep our staff in our HQ in Gent informed, our fair wear engagement and progress is discussed regularly in staff meetings. Our CSR manager and CSR advisor attend regularly FWF online trainings, f.e. on living wages, alternative trainings for supplier, excessive overtime tools, communication guidelines, etc.

@Tekumut
WEP on social dialogue

5. Transparency & communication

Information management

Information and reporting lines have always been important at TWG. In 2020 we installed a new Product Life Management software. Centric 8 is a fashion-oriented PLM system that will also enable integration of 3D in the future. With this we share the same program with the Turkish development department. Where previously links had to be made between our different programs. This will mean progress in which all product information is fully visible and transparent on both sides.

In this new system, the suppliers file will contain much more than just name and address. The objective is to keep the complete supplier file up to date. So that we always have our criteria and parameters in view. It will also be visible which specializations, certificates and audits the supplier has in its portfolio. This makes this information easily availa-

ble to all people who need it. The project went live in October 2021, and we evaluated it very positively in 2022. Implementation though needs further efforts untill all features will be fully integrated.

Our supplier list

Having our own production facility making slightly 85% of our products is a real added value to us. We can do deep research and development with our technical collegues in Turkey. This way we can well monitor all parameters inhouse. Another big advantage is that it can keep our supplier list very short. We trust upon specialized companies for specific accessories such as our plush toys, slippers and knitwear. This gives each supplier a very dedicated task in our organization.

FactoryProductlev.Audit Country BELLA-TEKUMUT WO- lordsxlilies -
TURKEY DESEN WOODY- lxl ultrasoft PES 5,9% CHUANGZHI WOODY toys 1,3% RAVDEE CHINA 1,8% CHAMTEX 0,8% ROCA WOODY- lxl socks WO- lordsxlilies slippers 0,8% WAYTONE 0,8% SUNKNIT WOODY 4,1% lordsxlilies woven lordsxlilies knits INDIA 84,5% close contact long relationship close contact long relationship close contact long relationship SMETA 2022 SMETA 2021 AMF/BSCI 2022 FWF 2020 FWF 2022
underwear

Transparency & communication

FWF Leader status

Towards our customers, we communicated in 2022 on our FWF leadership status with a hangtag on all items and

Fairwear is also featured on our website (where also the Brand Performance Check Report is published), in our brochures and in our web shops, both Woody and lordsxlilies. For our webshop of lxl we also mention the production location and manufacturers name. This way we strive for upgraded transparency towards the end consumer.

During Fashion Revolution Week, we communicated in our newsletter and social media with “I Made your Clothes”, with pictures from our workers. Our managing director also talked about our fair wear engagement and FWF in an interview on the national radio.

6. Corporate Responsibility

Next to our social fair wear engagement, The Woody Group invests also in environmental engagement. We realize we have our responsibility to take in limiting the ecological impact of the fashion industry. We try to use more sustainable fabrics and find steps to the most appropriate circular business model(s) for our brand, through different projects and initiatives. Longevity is a key principle for The Woody group and is key to functional and longslasting sleepwear.

Furthermore, we realise that not everyone has the privilege of sleeping in a comfortable bed at night, with warm pyjamas in a safe environment. At The Woody Group we donate per pyjama a small amount to the CliniClowns. This way we adopted a cheerful clown duo that visits the children at the oncology department of UZ Gent every week.

were absent due to the aftercare of the earthquake. All these people were visited with the question if they needed help and support. Nobody was forced to come to work. An earthquake compensation of 1500 TRY was paid as an extra to use for repair and renewal costs at their homes.

Beginning of February 2023, a more severe earthquake hit Turkey and Syria. The region of Duzce was not affected this time. However as a very fast solidarity action, they start to make warm blankets from stock materials. This way they could actively help to the affected region on the other side of Turkey.

Also at Tekumut in Turkey, solidarity in times of adversity is certainly present. In November 2022, the region of Duzce has been hit by an earthquake. The factory had minor damage, as well as the houses of the workers. Nobody went to work on the day of the earthquake. On the second day 70 workers

Dulle Grietlaan 1

9050 Gentbrugge

Belgium

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