Our approach

Home Retail Group will review its approach to corporate responsibility after demerger and it will build on the foundations laid by GUS. In the meantime, Home Retail Group will continue to embrace the GUS interpretation of the phrase corporate responsibility (CR) namely, to take due regard of society's expectations of large companies. We share the widely held view in the business community that these expectations are for steadily higher standards of conduct and for the Company to take increased responsibility for the direct and indirect effects of its operations.

The range of issues commonly embraced by the term CR is extremely wide. It is anticipated that we will seek to apply the same definition of corporate responsibility built on the following elements by GUS:

• The principal duty of the group is to maximise return to its shareholders, but it must do so in a manner consistent with legal and ethical norms in the societies that surround it. These norms lead to a set of explicit and implicit ethical obligations for the company.
• Failure to recognise appropriate ethical obligations can lead to sanctions against the company that will damage itsperformance or assets. This is not judged to be in the interests of current or future shareholders.
• Companies that are quick to respond to shifts in social attitudes are often better placed to take advantage of new markets and opportunities as they arise. A company with a positive social reputation will also benefit from increased customer and employee loyalty, leading in turn to advocacy on its behalf from these important groups.
• An important element of the management of CR is therefore its identification of risks and opportunities arising from a more holistic understanding of the social context of the group's businesses than might otherwise have been the case.
• Home Retail Group cannot satisfy every individual stakeholder on every one of their concerns. Therefore, it seeks to prioritise its response based on the current and future significance of the issue to the business.

The seven corporate responsibility issues that we believe will be priorities for Home Retail Group are:

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

Hence, we will focus on managing our significant risks now, but continually look to a future that may be very different from today and plan ahead accordingly. Gordon Bentley, our group company secretary and general counsel, will be responsible for establishing our policy in CR. His position reflects the links between corporate governance and corporate responsibility, as well as shareholder interest. The current management structure will be published on this site soon after demerger, but will closely follow the GUS CR management structure.

We see our key stakeholders as:

• Our investors and lenders and all who advise them
• Our customers
• Our colleagues in Home Retail Group
• Our suppliers and business partners
• The communities around us
• Opinion formers and policy makers in Government, NGOs and the media

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