People

As a specialist retailer committed to the best customer service, one of our key differentiators and strengths is our people. We have over 26,000 employees across Europe and we want them all to have satisfying and rewarding careers within the Group.

By respecting and valuing our employees we engage their talents and abilities to the fullest extent. We also realise that a well-trained workforce is a key differentiator and we therefore put great emphasis on our training programmes. In the UK we developed a market-leading e-learning programme which now has over 7,000 active users, with 320,000 modules completed in the past 12 months. Seventy videos have now been released to help improve store staff product knowledge, in addition to using digital magazines/eBooks. The scheme has also been adopted and tailored in Holland.

We have platforms for our employees’ opinions to be heard and we value their input on how the business is being run. Our communication channels include regular workers’ councils, where issues are discussed with representatives from across the organisation. We also have many other forums for discussion and we regularly conduct employee surveys which allow management to take a wide range of viewpoints into account. We promote the health, safety and welfare of both colleagues and customers across all our sites and we have a team of advisers who monitor and report to our Company Secretary on these issues.

Last year we relocated our major warehouses in Belgium and the Czech Republic with much improved working environments for the employees.

We have established a written Code of Conduct which outlines the ethical standards we expect from all employees of companies within the Group. This includes both permanent and contract staff and any external consultants or suppliers we retain.