Procurement & supply chain

BOBST takes the commitment to drive operations and its supply base in a manner that minimizes environmental effects and enables a positive social impact. Sustainability becomes a core business decision factor along with risk management, quality, cost, and delivery performance. We have chosen to target the riskiest suppliers with a risk-based approach, including documentary, on-site assessments and EcoVadis partnership to secure the mitigation plan.

BOBST’s sustainability core team developed a due diligence process with a risk-based approach to meeting the Swiss Ordinance on Due Diligence and Transparency in relation to Minerals and Metals from Conflict-Affected Areas and Child Labor. It’s part of the requirements of non-financial transparency for Swiss companies that entered into force in 2022 (counterproposal to the Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) adopted by the Swiss Federal Council). After approbation by the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Committee, the Chief Procurement Officer and the Head of Corporate Sustainability followed it up with a quarterly steering committee. The sustainable procurement vision and policy were set in 2022 to enforce the corporate sustainability strategy throughout the purchasing community and its related supply chain.

Suppliers not fulfilling the due diligence will be downgraded to new business hold status as per standard sourcing process performance management. The business relationship will stop if a supplier fails to comply with the Supplier Code of Conduct and does not improve on the other performance criteria.

An integrity line is available for internal and external stakeholders to report any deviations.

After a strategy and vision workshop in 2022, all new suppliers were onboarded in the sustainability due diligence process. Under the responsibility of Group Purchasing, each new supplier was requested to sign the Supplier Code of Conduct, while the BOBST purchasing staff completed a supplier risk assessment. EcoVadis, with which a partnership was entered into, further performed an assessment of suppliers, in accordance with our risk-based sample of 276 suppliers.

For existing suppliers, BOBST’s due diligence process could be summarized by this four steps approach, validated by BOBST Audit Committee:

• STEP 1 – Compliance with Supplier Code of Conduct: target 80% of the spend; 82% done;
• STEP 2 – Supplier Risk Assessment (SRA): 276 suppliers targeted by our risk-based approach; 91% done;
• STEP 3 – EcoVadis assessment: 276 suppliers targeted with a minimum rating of 25/100; started in Q3-2022, 32% done;
• STEP 4 – Full assessment for suppliers with sustainability risks: 100% of cases are targeted; no supplier was identified as being “at risk” through our Supplier Risk Assessment or EcoVadis.

BOBST has investigated and confirms itself to be below the limit of import and processing quantities with regards to section 2, art. 3-4, related to minerals and metals from conflict and high-risk areas from the Ordinance.

To execute our vision and drive our supply chain transformation, BOBST has committed to awarding 50% of its spend to sustainable suppliers. As a first step, sustainable suppliers mean that a Supplier Code of Conduct is signed, Supplier Risk Assessment established and an EcoVadis rating equal to or above 25 provided. The purchasing community has been incentivized accordingly and will be monitored from 2023 onwards to meet this ambitious target.

The new supplier selection process enforced in 2022 added sustainability chapters, including social criteria such as child labor, conflict minerals and business ethics. In 2022, in line with this deployment phase and as per purchasing process in place, 76% of new suppliers have been audited using such criteria. None of those audits have evidenced risks on human rights.

For existing suppliers, sustainability and social criteria are considered through our Supplier Risk Assessment audit. For suppliers considered “at risk” the related actions are tracked and followed on a quarterly basis.

Selected suppliers are also assessed by our partner EcoVadis and actions are tracked and followed along with the Supplier Risk Assessment process previously mentioned.

In our sustainable procurement policy, we require our supplier to take action to improve environmental and social impacts and share results through a third party assessment body.