Supply chains start at the point of manufacturing and continue through to the merchants that Transa purchases its goods from. It is important to us that the rights of people, animals and the environment are respected along this journey. You can find information about our brands’ supply chains here.
All the products in our range are manufactured by someone somewhere. As globalisation has advanced, these products’ supply chains have become increasingly complex and opaque. Production has often been outsourced to countries and regions with a weak rule of law and inadequate regulations in order to keep production costs as low as possible. This has increased the likelihood of human and workers’ rights being violated, animals not being treated appropriately or the environment being polluted.
If we want to take responsibility for sustainability in supply chains and production, we first need to know where products are manufactured. Transparency is the first step towards supply chains that are safe for people, animals and the environment.
Remember that this is not about transparency as an end in itself, but about transparency being an important tool if we want more sustainable supply chains.
Transparency also allows us to collaborate with other companies that manufacture products at the same location and want to reduce CO₂e emissions there, say, or launch a project to improve wages.
Transa doesn’t have its own brand of products, so we don’t have any direct influence over our suppliers’ manufacturing processes and supply chains. Consequently, we cannot disclose our supply chains, because we do not have any. That said, our brands have products manufactured for themselves and know their producers – which is why we, at Transa, work at the interface between brands and consumers. We believe that we can offer real added value and boost transparency.
We want to show how our top-selling brands are dealing with the issue of transparency in their supply chains and encourage our brands to disclose where their range is made. This means that they should publish the names and addresses of all their direct suppliers, as a minimum. Ideally – and, fortunately, this applies in many cases – the transparency goes further back in the supply chain and includes information on:
The number and gender of employees
Certifications relating to the environment, animal protection and worker protection
Information on whether workers are unionised
Information about membership of organisations that promote sustainable development
This information must be publicly available. This means that the brands should publish their current manufacturers on their own website or on the Open Supply Hub page. Find out more under ‘How do brands publish their supply chain data?’.
12 of our 20 top-selling brands publish information about the production facilities in their supply chains in accordance with the above standards. Together, these 12 brands generate about a third of Transa’s turnover.
Six of these 12 brands use the Open Supply Hub, which provides a tool developed and operated by a non-profit US organisation, to publish information about the manufacturing facilities in their supply chains. This will jointly bring greater transparency to global supply chains. Brands, retailers, NGOs, research institutes and service providers can upload data on production sites, which are then reviewed by the Open Supply Hub. The aim is for organisations to better map and monitor their supply chains. Although the Open Supply Hub does not itself highlight grievances in supply chains, it does serve as a basis for identifying and resolving problems through the transparency it generates.
The other six brands mostly publish their supplier lists either on their website itself or in their sustainability reports. Eight of our 20 top-selling brands do not disclose information about the manufacturing sites in their supply chains.
An overview of what our 20 highest-selling brands are saying about their manufacturing facilities can be found below.
Publish information about their manufacturing facilities
Publish little or no information about their manufacturing facilities
Scarpa: information about its own manufacturing facility in Asolo
Black Diamond: not specified
Osprey: not specified
Craghoppers: not specified
Garmin: not specified
Cocoon: not specified
Sea to Summit: not specified
We sell more than 400 different brands at Transa. Collecting, evaluating and regularly updating all the relevant sustainability information for every single brand (and not just regarding supply chain transparency) is very time-consuming. So that we can move forward with a clear focus, we need to set priorities and be able to live with the fact that we are not yet able to achieve everything we want to achieve.
This means, for instance, that we will limit our communication on supply chain transparency to our top 20 brands for the time being. Together, these brands account for almost half of our total sales.
(With the TransaCard always free of charge)