This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”) and constitutes our modern slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31st December 2023. The purpose of this statement is to set out our policies and identify actions that we have taken to prevent slavery and human trafficking from taking place in our business.

OVERVIEW OF OUR BUSINESS
Global Merchandising Services Ltd is part of the Global Merchandising Services Group and its principal activity is the design, source, and selling of merchandise.

STRUCTURE AND SUPPLY CHAINS
Global’s supply chain sources and arranges distribution of physical merchandise including apparel, paperproducts, and accessories. The majority of physical product is sourced from suppliers based within the UK and Europe, with the products themselves being a mix of both bespoke and ‘ready-made/ off-the-shelf’ garments. These garments are manufactured in a variety of countries.

GLOBAL POLICIES ON MODERN SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Global Merchandising Services Limited fully supports the aims of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and is committed to carrying out its business in a fair and decent manner. We understand the importance of ethics in our business and we constantly try to improve our processes to ensure that we adhere to ethical business practices.

We are, and have been for many years, committed to human dignity and we respect the rights of individuals in all areas of our work. Practices that degrade other people – discrimination,slavery, child labour and unfair and unsafe working conditions – have no place in our company, industry or society. We take steps to protect human rights in our business, including endeavouring to ensure we choose business partners who share our commitment to respecting human rights and doing business with integrity.

This statement reflects our commitment to acting ethically in our business relationships and reflects our commitment to a no tolerance approach to any form of slavery, human trafficking or child labour, including:
• Not using any form of forced, bonded,compulsory labour, slavery or human trafficking;
• Compliance with applicable national laws and regulations regarding working hours, minimum wages and benefits.
• Having appropriate processes and due diligence procedures in place to highlight any possible risks.

Due to the nature of our business, we assess that there is very low risk of slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains. We do not have specific key performance indicators in this area as we would expect any instance to be a breach of law and/or our company policies.

OUR PROCUREMENT PARTNERS
Our procurement process attempts to identify and mitigate risk and we endeavour to ensure that contracts to be entered into with suppliers and contractors also contain provisions requiring both parties to comply with applicable laws and allow for us to terminate our contracts with any suppliers who do not comply. Notwithstanding the steps we take in this area, it is ultimately our suppliers’ duty to respect the applicable laws and ethics on human rights.

TRAINING
All relevant decision-makers within the company have been made aware of risks, policies and standards related to modern slavery, human trafficking and forced labour. In order to ensure a better understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business, we provide managerial assistance to relevant members of staff involved in our procurement business.This statement has been approved by the board of directors of Global Merchandising Services Limited.

Michael Cass
Director
Global Merchandising Services Limited, 15 January 2024