Supply chain management – supportive and ambitious

Our direct business partners for product manufacturing are our producers. They prepare the fabrics, cut out pattern pieces and sew them into finished products. Quality control and packaging finish off the process.

In general, the textile and clothing industry is very labor intensive. The manufacturing of our VAUDE products is very demanding. It requires many people working on many sewing machines – and naturally we need to ensure fair working conditions for them. Read more here to find out how we put this into practice.

Most of our materials are bought by our manufacturers in accordance with our specifications for quality, color, quantity, and from material manufacturers that we have already carefully vetted (selected). So, in addition to knowing all of our producers, we also know all of our material suppliers. Find out more

Dialog with these material suppliers whose substances and ingredients we nominate is ongoing and extensive, because they have a big influence on the sustainability of our products. We have worked together with many of them for years and have developed new materials specifically for VAUDE.

Sometimes, our producers use local suppliers for small parts. We now know all of these suppliers and have incorporated them into our monitoring process for hazardous substances; we provide training on how to deal with chemicals and regularly analyze their chemical testing. With coordinated efforts between quality management, purchasing and our team, we are implementing measures that help suppliers achieve constant improvement.

As part of our risk analysis program, we address the issue of corruption in the supply chain at a national level using amfori's assessments. This gives us an initial overview of the potential corruption risks in our European and Asian countries of production. Our goal is to delve deeper into the issue in order to be able to take effective and measurable action in the long term.

We have developed a strict system for the assessment of potential partners. Our local experts inspect their production sites by using detailed checklists divided into three areas: Social standards, environmental management and quality. In addition, we sit down for intensive talks with the management team to see whether their working methods are compatible with our approach and whether we can work together.

Then, we decide whether the new partner is or isn’t a good fit for us.

All our partners must sign an agreement to comply with our requirements and agree to work together with us on continuous improvements.

The following aspects are checked during inspections:

• Social standards (compliance with the FW Code of Labor Practices)

• Environment (Chemicals management, emissions, wastewater)
  

• Quality
  
  

If the production facility has already been audited or certified by another standard (such as FW, bluesign®, ZDHC) the scope of our controls is reduced and we make use of existing data and standards. Our aim is to use our own resources and our partner’s resources in an efficient a way as possible, to positively influence the supply chain. 

During the on-site screening, we carry out inspections of the entire production facility. We also check documents and conduct interviews with employees and management.
After the inspection, we work together to draw up a binding corrective action plan that clearly lists any discrepancies. 

The VAUDE experts support the new partner throughout the whole improvement process with their vast experience.
Progress of the corrective action plan is also monitored at regular intervals.

In 2018, we conducted the first performance checks and reviewed 8 suppliers in the second and third stages of our supply chain. In 2019, 7 second-tier and third-tier suppliers were evaluated. In 2020 and 2021, we did not perform any further performance checks due to the pandemic. In total, we have therefore already audited 15 suppliers. These cover about 60 % of our material consumption. Our local teams monitored the operations and have since supported the implementation of the improvement measures. In addition, VAUDE offers various empowerment measures for all partners.

The experience gained so far has been extremely valuable to us. It is helping us to identify the most urgent challenges and to align the support of our partners accordingly, so that we can work together to improve working conditions over the long term.

VAUDE Vendor Meeting

In 2018 and 2019 we invited all partners in our supply chain to the VAUDE Vendor Meeting at our headquarters.

The VAUDE Vendor Meeting is a strategic assembly in which we inform our supply chain about current developments, our strategic goals and upcoming issues as well as discuss with them how we can implement these goals and turn challenges into opportunities.

VAUDE Vendor Club

The VAUDE Vendor Club is a platform for the exchange of best practices, expert lectures and workshops on a wide variety of issues. This format was developed as part of our "Environmental Stewardship in the Textile Supply Chain" project. The goal is to enable the supply chain to achieve our environmental and social goals. To this end, we are working together with the experts who are responsible for operations in the supply chain on issues such as detox, science based targets or social issues such as fair wages, social dialogue, etc.

Vendor Clubs were held in Vietnam and Taiwan in 2019.

Many of our sewing factories are in Vietnam, so the focus here was on social dialogue and the introduction of an energy management system as preparation for our science based targets.

The majority of our fabric suppliers are located in Taiwan so the focus here was on Circular Textiles (recycling management in the textile sector) and science based targets. In 2021, a digital Vendor Club was held for our Asian and European partners. In this context, we informed our partners about news in the VAUDE sustainability strategy, the Science Based Targets, Green Shape 3.0 and the Brand Material Goals, as well as about ZDHC and HIGG issues.