Marketplace

We are committed to providing quality products and services to our customers, and to ensuring the safety and sustainability of those products and of the supply chain behind them.

Customer satisfaction is our priority, and our colleagues seek to empathise with our customers’ needs. In most of our global markets, we use an online platform called Eat on the Move to ask customers for their feedback so that we can review our performance and identify ways to improve the service we provide.

Healthier choices

We seek to ensure that our product ranges and menus offer our customers wide choice, including healthier ranges, such as lower fat, lower sugar or low carbohydrate options. We also look at ways to improve the health credentials of recipes. This will include using low fat mayo or spread as standard and eliminating the use of artificial transfats.

Sugar reduction in the UK

Our cold beverage range now has a wider selection of low calorie and diet drinks. In our Camden and Whistlestop units, for example, we have increased the number of low calorie or diet drinks in our ranges by over 50% since 2015. We have also reviewed our confectionery range and increased the number of healthier lines within it. In Pumpkin, the number of healthier lines has increased by 31% whilst the size of the overall confectionery range has decreased by 23%. A recent review of our muffin range in our UK own brand coffee shops also resulted in a 15% reduction in sugar content and portion size.
Ethical trade

Our Supplier Code of Conduct and Human Rights Policy is aligned to the Ethical Trading Initiative’s Base Code and outlines the labour standards we expect our suppliers to work towards, so we can ensure that they are fairly treated. This is used throughout our global business.

We have an ongoing programme of engagement with our key suppliers around the world to ensure that they understand and comply with our Ethical Trade Code of Conduct and Human Rights policy. Our global purchasing teams receive training to support them in this supplier dialogue so they may assess risks within our supply chain. An increasing number of suppliers are now connected with SSP via the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX), enabling our country purchasing teams to access detailed information on ethical trade risks and performance. We continue to work with our management teams, in particular in those countries deemed to be high risk for ethical trade and modern slavery, to ensure that appropriate controls are in place.

In line with the requirements of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, we also operate a due diligence process to ensure that modern slavery risks are closely monitored within our business and supply chain. Further detail on our approach is provided in our separate Modern Slavery statement.
Responsible sourcing

Our Responsible Sourcing Policy outlines the standards which we expect our purchasing teams to implement when sourcing ingredients for our menus. Our objective is that the products we sell should come from sustainably managed sources wherever possible.

As hot beverages are such an important part of our offer, we want  to ensure that the coffees and teas are produced in accordance with ethical and sustainable standards, such as the Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance certification schemes. More than 70% of the coffee we purchase for our proprietary brands is from certified sources. Some of our brands also offer organic coffees, for example, Soho Coffee and Mama Campo in Spain. All of the milk in our Swedish operations is also organic, as is the wine.

We know that animal welfare is a priority for our customers and stakeholders. We are committed to maintaining high standards of animal welfare within our supply chain and expect our suppliers to meet or exceed the standards within the ‘Five Freedoms’ concept proposed by the Farm Animal Welfare Council. Further details on our animal welfare standards are included in our Farm Animal Welfare Policy.

Review of egg sourcing strategy

We have made a commitment to source all of the eggs we use within our proprietary brands across our global business from cage-free sources by 2025. Our country purchasing teams will be working with suppliers over the coming years to implement the changes.

We are already making progress towards this target. All of the hard-boiled eggs and scrambled eggs purchased for SSP UK’s proprietary brands are now from cage-free sources. In Sweden, all whole eggs are from cage-free sources.

Marketplace

Healthier choices

Ethical trade

Responsible sourcing