At THE ICONIC, we are committed to upholding decent working conditions and human rights throughout our supply chain. Our approach goes beyond basic compliance measures, with a focus on supporting the dignity, wellbeing and empowerment of the people who make our products.
We prioritise training and capability building for our internal teams and supply chain partners, while driving greater transparency and traceability across our supply chain. This helps us better understand and mitigate modern slavery risks, as we maintain zero tolerance for any form of modern slavery or labour abuse. Read more in our 2024 Modern Slavery Statement. Ultimately, all of our efforts in this space are intended to help defend fundamental human rights.
- Collaborating with our third-party brand partners to ensure they meet our human rights standards. 2025 progress: 41%
- Continuing living wage assessments across all of our Own Brand factories. 2025 progress: 26%
- Enabling effective grievance channels for all workers through our in-factory assessments and the implementation of independent grievance mechanisms. 2025 progress: 87%
Third-Party Brands Approach
As a multi-brand retailer and platform, we recognise the role we can play in influencing positive change and raising standards across the brands we work with, while championing those already leading in this space.
We are committed to working collaboratively with third-party brands to support their own sustainability journey and to ensure we are working with brands whose values align with our own. While we take responsibility for the role we can play to provide capacity-building opportunities and raise awareness of sustainability issues, ultimately we place responsibility with our brand partners to ensure they have the policies and procedures in place to manage their own impacts.
In addition to referencing our Supplier & Vendor Code of Conduct in all brand partner agreements, including the minimum standards it sets across a range of compliance areas (such as our Animal Welfare policy), we have also developed a group-led Brand Human Rights Standards and assessment process to provide visibility over brands and help prioritise engagement on this topic.
Own Brand Approach
Our Supplier & Vendor Code of Conduct sets out our environmental, human rights, labour, health and safety standards and expectations. It applies to our manufacturers, their subcontractors, and suppliers of inputs and raw materials. These minimum standards are referenced in all supplier contracts and are based on internationally recognised frameworks and regulations, including the International Labour Organisation’s Fundamental Conventions and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code.
Our Own Brands are produced in 39 independent supplying factories in China (30), India (5), Bangladesh (3) and Vietnam (1). More than 12,800 people are employed across these locations, 5,780 of whom are women. A public list of all THE ICONIC’s final-stage factories is updated monthly and can be downloaded here or found on the Open Supply Hub database.
Supply Chain Worker Wellbeing & Empowerment Programs
We facilitate programs designed to improve the livelihoods of the people working in the factories and supply chains that produce our Own Brand products.
We support the fundamental right of workers to access remedy through effective grievance channels. While many of our factories already have worker dialogue and grievance mechanisms in place, such as worker committees, local unions or hotlines, we are committed to ensuring these existing channels are effective in addressing workers’ concerns and supporting improvement or providing alternatives where needed.
A key step in helping workers receive fair wages that support their families and livelihoods is undertaking assessments using the Anker Methodology and Wage Indicator data, alongside wage-related information collected through on-site visits. To date, we have conducted living wage assessments across 26% of our Tier 1 factory base. These assessments have found that not only are all workers (including the lowest-paid workers) at these factories receiving at least the minimum wage, but 90% of workers at these factories are earning at or above the recognised living wage benchmark for their region.
All tier-one and tier-two factories are required to undergo a third-party audit at least every two years. In addition, our internal social compliance team conducts regular on-site factory visits to assess all elements of our Code of Conduct.
We recognise that there may be times when our standards are not fully met by our factory partners, including in areas shaped by broader systemic industry issues such as overtime and social insurance. When these issues are identified, we work collaboratively with factory management to develop and implement relevant remediation plans.
Subcontracting from these facilities is not permitted without prior approval, as outlined in the Purchase Order Terms stated in THE ICONIC’s contract with suppliers. Suppliers must commit to ensuring production takes place only in nominated and approved factories.
We facilitate programs designed to improve the livelihoods of the people working in the factories and supply chains that produce our Own Brand products.
We support the fundamental right of workers to access remedy through effective grievance channels. While many of our factories already have worker dialogue and grievance mechanisms in place, such as worker committees, local unions or hotlines, we are committed to ensuring these existing channels are effective in addressing workers’ concerns and supporting improvement or providing alternatives where needed.
A key step in helping workers receive fair wages that support their families and livelihoods is undertaking assessments using the Anker Methodology and Wage Indicator data, alongside wage-related information collected through on-site visits. To date, we have conducted living wage assessments across 26% of our Tier 1 factory base. These assessments have found that not only are all workers (including the lowest-paid workers) at these factories receiving at least the minimum wage, but 90% of workers at these factories are earning at or above the recognised living wage benchmark for their region.
Committed to improving our responsible purchasing practices recognising that our buying behaviours have a direct impact on the conditions and experiences of people in our supply chains. We also recognise that ensuring decent working conditions throughout our entire supply chain requires visibility, which is enabled through traceability and depend through supply chain relationships including those with our third-party brands. We continue to work with our Own Brand suppliers to increase the visibility and traceability of the supply chains in which our Own Brand products are made.
As our fair and ethical sourcing program matures, so does the need for our sourcing model to reflect the initiatives and commitments made.
This is why in 2022, a strategic sourcing project was undertaken to redefine our Own Brand supply chain and assess the partnerships we have with suppliers. This assessment ensures that we continue to grow with suppliers and factories who are aligned with our values and commitments, including lowering the carbon footprint of product manufacturing, accelerating the uptake of preferred materials and ensuring decent working conditions, while also meeting the commercial needs of our business.
An important element of our supplier partnerships is the need to ensure we play an equal role in enabling suppliers to meet our expectations through our purchasing practices. Our Responsible Purchasing Policy outlines our minimum commitments related to buying behaviours and acting with integrity in our dealings with suppliers. We are increasing focus in this area and in 2023, we will see the principles of our existing policy further developed into responsible purchasing practices with corresponding metrics to enable us to monitor our buying behaviours in a tangible way. This will help us drive continuous improvement across our own business and further recognise our contribution to the ability of our suppliers to ensure decent working conditions for workers.
By implementing positive changes within our own business, we seek to influence positive changes amongst the brands we work with and champion those who are already leading in this space.
We are committed to working collaboratively with our third-party brands to support their own sustainability journey and to ensure we are working with brands whose values align with our own. While we take responsibility for the role we can play to provide capacity-building opportunities and raise awareness of sustainability issues, ultimately we place responsibility with our brand partners to ensure they have the policies and procedures in place to manage their own impacts.
Therefore, in addition to all brand partner agreements including reference to our Supplier Code of Conduct and the minimum standards it sets, we have developed a Group-led Brand Human Rights Standards and assessment process.
Who Made My Clothes?
Our desire to gain visibility and traceability of where and how products are made has made us acutely aware of the disconnect our customers face when trying to understand who makes the clothes they purchase. We don’t know much about their lives, how they got to where they are or where they want to go.
Our #whomademyclothes short film, released for Fashion Revolution Week in 2019, shares with you the stories of just a small sample of the people involved in manufacturing our Own Brand labels. Our aim for this film was to try and reconnect customers with the clothes they wear through these human stories, and we think it’s still an important reminder today.
The three factories you see in the film are located in the Guangzhou and Dongguan areas of Southern China, which is where the majority of our production takes place. You can find a list of the locations of all factories we use and information about the work we are doing with them here (> Our Factory Audit Program).
Thank you to Xheng Fu Ting, Chen Chun, Hu Yin, Xiang Dong Yuan, Zgy Su Lan, Liu Hai Ying, Yang Hai Xiong, Li Ping and Bao Shan Cheng for sharing their stories with us.
These people made your clothes
Animal Welfare
THE ICONIC’s Animal Welfare Policy outlines our expectations as to how and where animal materials are used in our products, and is applicable to both our Own Brands and our third-party brand partners.
We expect our suppliers to implement industry-recognised practices to ensure animal welfare is safeguarded during rearing, transportation and slaughter.
We also expect that Suppliers work towards aligning with the industry-recognised Five Domains Model, the Five Provisions and Aligned Animal Welfare Aims on a number of factors including:
- Nutrition — factors that involve the animal’s access to sufficient, balanced, varied, and clean food and water.
- Environment — factors that enable comfort through temperature, substrate, space, air, odour, noise, and predictability.
- Health — factors that enable good health through the absence of disease, injury, impairment with a good fitness level.
- Behaviour — factors that provide varied, novel, and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing, retreating, and others.
- Mental state — the mental state of the animal should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort, or vitality while reducing negative states such as fear, frustration, hunger, pain, or boredom.
Additionally, THE ICONIC requires any animal materials used in our Own Brand styles or partner brands’ styles to strictly be a by-product of the food industry. THE ICONIC does not purchase, nor sell items that use real animal fur of any kind including exotic skins or hair from the angora rabbit and prohibits processes including: unnatural abortions, live skinning, live plucking, mulesing, confinement of animals in veal or sow crates and animal testing on cosmetics, except where required by law.
THE ICONIC rejects any form of modern slavery or exploitation, where a person cannot refuse or leave work because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception.
This abuse of power and control in modern economic circumstances occurs in every region of the world. The 2023 Global Slavery Index estimated that more than 50 million people globally were living in modern slavery in 2021, including an estimated 29.3 million people in the Asia Pacific region alone. It also estimated that, on any given day, there were 41,000 individuals in Australia living in situations of modern slavery.
We expect all employees, suppliers and stakeholders to actively support efforts to eradicate modern slavery and, where relevant, ensure they meet their modern slavery reporting requirements. Since 2019, THE ICONIC has maintained a continuous and rigorous end-to-end process for managing modern slavery risks across our business, including enterprise-wide risk assessments of our business operations and supply chain.
This analysis of known risks, existing controls and identified opportunities helps ensure THE ICONIC is operating to effectively combat any risk of modern slavery and other human rights abuses across our business operations and supply chain.
Read our latest Modern Slavery Statement here
Our dedicated annual enterprise modern slavery risk assessments and action plans, which we report on annually, help maintain our zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery, including forced, bonded or child labour.
Read our 2024 Modern Slavery Statement
We expect all employees, suppliers and stakeholders to actively support the work involved to eradicate modern slavery and, where relevant, ensure they meet their modern slavery reporting requirements. Since 2019, THE ICONIC has had in place a continuous and rigorous end-to-end process of managing modern slavery risks in the context of our business, including the performing of enterprise-wide risk assessments of our business operations and supply chain. This analysis of the intersections between known risks, current controls, and opportunities identified, ensures that THE ICONIC is operating to effectively combat any risk of modern slavery and other human rights abuses in our business operations and supply chain.
Should THE ICONIC ever identify incidences of slavery, servitude, forced or child labour, debt bondage, deceptive recruiting or any other human rights abuse in our operations or supply chain, an immediate remediation response would commence as per our Child and Forced Labour Remediation Guidelines.
This would focus first and foremost on ensuring the person or people involved were safely removed from the situation. They would then be provided with the necessary support by appropriate local organisations to help implement a remediation plan designed to achieve positive outcomes for the persons or people concerned. We also reserve the right to immediately terminate the relationship with the factory or vendor if they do not comply with the remediation plan in place and would work with local authorities to help ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
