Primark
With this being said though do Primark actually offer high quality clothing? When compared to retail chain Next, the quality in which is offered is at a much higher standard than Primark although it has been said that they use the same suppliers. Maybe the quality has something to do with the child labour in which Primark have been using?
The values in which Primark have are " to offer the best value for money" meaning that they want to supply high quality but for low prices. They also want "to continuously improve our range of products" meaning that they want to keep up to date with the latest trends in order to be improve their business. In addition to this Primark wish "to treat customers as we want to be treated ourselves" "to respect each other". By stating this it means that they value treating everyone with respect as they wish others to treat them. As well as the ones I have mentioned above Primark also strive continuously for effectiveness. This means that the company value being the best they can be and aim for a high quality performance.
It is a bit ironic how Primark have stated that one of their key values is "to treat customers as we want to be treated ourselves" in which they clearly do not follow through with. I say this as it is obvious that they treat their customers much better than they treat their staff as they are users of child labour. This shows that Primark are portraying themselves to appear better than what they actually are.
https://www.primark.com/en/careers/values-and-diversity
During the year 2008, the Primark chain sacked 3 of its Indian clothing supply firms due to the BBC's panorama show finding out that refugee children were slaving away within factories only to make as little as 60p per day. Back in 2009 Primark had to try to save their reputation after the suspected ideas that they were using illegal labour practices and poor working conditions. These suspicions were raised just after it had come about that Primark's products were being produced in India by factories in which use child labour.
It is a bit ironic how Primark have stated that one of their key values is "to treat customers as we want to be treated ourselves" in which they clearly do not follow through with. I say this as it is obvious that they treat their customers much better than they treat their staff as they are users of child labour. This shows that Primark are portraying themselves to appear better than what they actually are.
https://www.primark.com/en/careers/values-and-diversity
During the year 2008, the Primark chain sacked 3 of its Indian clothing supply firms due to the BBC's panorama show finding out that refugee children were slaving away within factories only to make as little as 60p per day. Back in 2009 Primark had to try to save their reputation after the suspected ideas that they were using illegal labour practices and poor working conditions. These suspicions were raised just after it had come about that Primark's products were being produced in India by factories in which use child labour.
In recent news Primark have said to have stopped using suppliers from across the world who are involved or use child labour. This is showing how the retail store chain are trying to improve the ethics of their operations.
In comparison to this, the co-operative use fair trade suppliers from across the world in order to help boost productivity, strengthen democracy, help improve environmental practices and to try and improve community-wide access to basis needs such as clean, fresh water and sanitation.
Primark could improve their ethical operations by using fair trade suppliers for their products in which the co-operative do, in order to help deepen and strengthen social and environmental sustainability.
Both of Primarks previous and recent actions may have had an effect on the stakeholders of the business.
The existing customers of Primark may be more willing to want to shop at the retail store knowning that they no longer receive their products from suppliers using forced labour. Additonally, this may attract more new customers to the store as it now has taken this ethically issue into consideration.
Another stakeholder in which this may effect could be the staff who work for Primark. The employees may feel more comfortable with working for a company knowing that no child or forced labour was used. Before this change, prospective employees may have been reluctant to apply for positions within this company as they did not accept child or forced labour. Because of this Primark may potentially gain more staff.
The shareholders in the business may also be affected when it came about that the store was using child and forced labour in order to manufacture their products. This may have caused them to fear a risk of obtaining a bad reputation and losing business value. On the other hand, now that these ethical issues have been handled the company may feel more relaxed and not so worried about getting a bad reputation.
Lastly, another stakeholder in which may be affected by the actions of the store could be child labour campaigners. Back in 2008 when the news came about that Primark was using child and forced labour, campaigners who feel strongly about this may have had a negative view and tooken various actions towards to the company. However now that they have changed their ethical operations and removed child and forced labour, these campaigners may now have a different view on the business.
Although Primark may have not been so ethical when it came to using child labour, they are in relation to the environment. 94% of the primark stores use building energy management systems in which control the consumption of energy in the stores. it does this by monitoring the lighting and temperature levels in each store in which it is based.
In addition to the building energy management systems, Primark recycle all the waste from their stores within the UK. This includes cardboard, hangers and plastic. Their facilities use a close loop system meaning that the waste in which is produced from a process of product, is then used in creating other products.
Furthermore, Primark have reduced their road mileage by 160,525 miles. As well as this they use 100% recycled bags in all of their stores which has saved 238,000 trees.
In order for the retail store to improve they could not use suppliers in which use child labour. By doing this it would enable the store to gain a better, higher reputation in which more people would want to shop at. In comparison to this, retail store Zara have a new code in which has been split into eleven separate points two of them being no forced labour and no child labour. Figures from both of these stores annual reports of 2013 show that Zara made a larger operating profit when compared to Primark, Zara's stood at 3.926bn euros whereas Primark stood at £1,185m. Could this be due to the use of child labour?
Another improvement in which Primark could make could be to improve their wastage of their products. Primark's clothing is sold at cheap prices, and cheap garments are often made form man made materials in which are unable to be recycled easily. As well as this cheap clothing is generally only worn a small amount of times until it is then thrown away. When compared to retail store H&M, they have now introduced "the worlds first global clothing collective initiative" in which any pieces of clothing from any brand in all conditions are accepted. By doing this it enables sustainability for the environment as a whole.
The last improvement in which I would suggest for Primark to make would be cut down on their emissions in which they produce from importing their supply's. Primark have several different suppliers from across the globe including china, India, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Becasue of this Primark are a cause of a lot of the carbon emissions produced from flying over their products. To cut down in this Primark should reduce the amount of overseas suppliers they use and start using ones from inside the UK as this would have a significant impact on the amount of emissions produced.
No comments:
Post a Comment