Interview with Chris Harrop from Marshalls

Posted: Monday 15 September 08, 12.30pm GMT

Our first Magazine interview is with Chris Harrop, Group Marketing Director from Marshalls, a UK based manufacturing company who specialise in hard landscape products. Marshalls, a member company of Business in the Community are leaders in their field at creating and promoting sustainable landscapes, especially through the management of their supply chain. 2008 Big Tick Winners of the Supply Chain Award category, this interview with Marshalls aims to inspire and share best practice with companies looking to improve the accountability and control of their supply chain.

Chris Harrop in India

1) Marshalls takes responsible business very seriously having been Business in the Community big tick winners in 2007 and 2008. What is the main motivation behind this focus on responsible business?

Marshalls have been in business since the late 1890’s and whether explicitly or implicitly have run the business in a sustainable manner, balancing our environmental, social and economic impacts.

Ultimately we believe that we cannot maximise long term profits by destroying the environment, exploiting workers or abusing our economic power – it is simply not sustainable. Operating our business in a sustainable and responsible manner means that we must not only make a profit but also take a proactive stance on our corporate social responsibilities.

2) The Indian Sandstone supply chain has been implemented very successfully by Marshalls taking control of its entirety; why did Marshalls decide to take this route and what were the main obstacles you faced?

In 2005 Marshalls committed to joining the ETI – the Ethical Trade Initiative, members commit to implementing the ETI base code throughout their supply chain.

The ETI base code covers the following elements;

No-one should be forced to work
Workers should be able to join and form trade unions
Working conditions should be safe and healthy
Child labour shall not be used
Working hours should not be excessive
Wages should be enough to live on and provide some discretionary income
Workers should be treated equally, regardless of their sex, ethnic group, religion or political opinions
Where possible, workers should be provided with regular employment
Workers should not be verbally, physically or sexually abused or disciplined

Following our own analysis of the supply chain for Indian Natural Sandstone it became very clear to us that unless we formed a significant partnership with one supplier it would be impossible for us to ensure compliance all the way through the supply chain from shipping right down to the extraction of the raw materials in the quarries.

Our analysis and that of several NGO’s showed;

Widespread use of child labour (primary research from Hadoti Hast Shilp Sansthan showed that between 15 and 20% of workers in quarries are children – July 2007)
Environmental damage caused by quarrying without any planned rectification or mitigation
Illegal practice of bonded labour
Exploitation of migrant workers
Breach of health and safety regulations
Non-living wages and excessive working hours

This decision required a very high level of commitment and trust from both parties, Marshalls and our partner Stone Shippers India.

3) What are the business benefits specifically for Marshalls of sourcing ethically?

We look at our overall approach against 3 main success criteria; full details are in our award entry

a) UK Business Benefits, specifically;

Our overall financial results have increased ahead of market growth
In the last 3 years we have seen our overall level of market share increase
Levels of product quality have increased
Marshalls brand strength and reputation has increased dramatically

b) Indian Supplier Benefits

Significant levels of business growth
The attainment of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 18001
Suport for mechanisation and automation to improve business performance and workers conditions

c) Indian Societal Benefits

Workers Health improvements
Workers social insurance provivision
Workers receive living wages and higher
Education for children of migrant workers
Health and Safety training

4) What have been the main challenges in maintaining your ethical sourcing reputation?

The challenges of implementing the ETI base code in the supply chain should not be underestimated. It is very easy for an administrative office in Mumbai to comply but the supply chain runs all the back to the physical extraction of the stone.

The quarrying areas are in rural Rajasthan, it is typically a 6 hour drive from the regional capital of Jaipur and 2 from the city of Kota. Monitoring and controlling what happens in these remote areas provides a very significant challenge.

This challenge can only be met by working in total partnership with our supplier and ensuring that compliance is a normal and core part of their business practices. This has represented a significant cultural and operational change in their business and behaviour. It is to their enormous credit that they have embraced this change and have gone further in improving the conditions for all of their workers.

In the face of a growing trade and consumer awareness in the UK it is an unfortunate fact that many importers of stone have resorted to ‘Greenwash’ to pronounce their ethical standards with no evidence to back up their claims.

This is perhaps Marshalls greatest challenge in this area – Ethically sourced stone can only be produced at a price premium, the cost of providing living wages, correct health and safety equipment and training and environmental protection and remediation. Competitors are frequently claiming compliance to the ETI base code without carrying out any work – this allows them to either claim a price premium or significantly under cut Marshalls pricing levels with what is claimed to be a comparable product.

A Director of one of the local NGO’s in Rajasthan was recently quoted in the international press ( The West Australian 5th April 2008)
“Only one overseas company across the world is doing something about the workers’ terrible conditions,” says Manjula Joshi, an India based labourers’ rights campaigner. “Only one!, Marshalls”

The lack of an audited label such as Fair Trade or FSC makes it very hard for consumers to discover the trust. This is perhaps the greatest challenge we face – Marshalls act to the highest levels of ethical responsibility – many others do not but claim they do.

5) What has been the most successful way in which you have supported your suppliers and contractors in the importance of being ethical and responsible?

The key to success with our supplier in India has been real involvement – taking the time to fully understand the issues and challenges they face and then using the resources of Marshals and organisations in the UK to help solve the problems and make improvements.

With our own customers it has been essential that we provide them with unbiased, independently audited evidence that the products we provide are ethically sourced. Added to this we provide them with materials that they can then use themselves to communicate the issues and benefits. On every pack of Marshalls Indian Natural Sandstone product there is a concise explantation of the issues and what Marshalls has done to combat them.

6) What have you done to help educate your consumers about the different impacts on society their choices can have?

Activity has been undertaken in all areas of our stakeholder base;

a) General Public and Consumer Media

The Marshalls for Sustainable Landscapes campaign. Focus has been given to national press coverage on child labour issues as well as raising awareness of the need for an ethical approach in the hard landscaping industry.

Chris Harrop has written Blogs of his many trips to India giving first hand accounts of the situations on the graound.

b) Trade Media

Marshalls produced a booklet distributed to all trade, consumer and national media as well as leading industry bodies and competitors. ‘The Truth About Indian Sandstone’

c) The Hard Landscaping Industry

Marshalls’ Sustainability Summits were run to ensure that key players in the hard landscaping industry engaged in debate on issues surrounding ethics and sustainability. The Summits are regularly attended by the ETI, the Dutch Sustainable Stone Initiative, key national and trade journalists as well as designers and the RHS.

d) Suppliers and Internal Teams

Marshalls communicates regularly with its suppliers and key Marshalls managers who are directly responsible for delivering the supply chain strategy go to overseas quarries 3 to 5 times a year to ensure standards are upheld and maintain strong links with quarry owners. Every month, Marshalls produces an e-newsletter called TalkBack by staff for staff, providing news, developments, award wins and special announcements.

e) The Community – India

There is very effective two way communication between Marshalls and Hadoti. Each year, Mrs Joshi at Hadoti provides Marshalls with a report on activity and impact of Marshalls’ support. This report is then fed back to Marshalls’ internal audiences and forms part of the media relations campaign.

7) What practical advice can a business like Marshalls offer to less developed businesses from new emerging markets who would like to improve CSR within their supply chain despite limited budgets and capacity?

The best advice we can give is simply to take responsibility, to visit suppliers, spend time on the ground to ensure that you really understand the issues and challenges and then make a start – don’t try to do everything at once, but make a clear commitment and plan improvements over time.

Ignorance is no defence and reputational damage for ignoring issues will be significant.

Above all avoid Greenwash, be open and honest and make a start.