GOVERNANCE
Board: The James Finlay Board is comprised of three executive directors and five non-executive directors. The Board meets three times a year and has direct oversight of the sustainability strategy as well as decision-making responsibility for all commitments and targets.
Global Leadership Team: The James Finlay Global Leadership Team oversees the day-to-day running of Finlays Group, including all business units and sites. This executive function plays a key sponsorship role for the sustainability strategy and provides oversight and direction on all areas.
Group Sustainability Team: The Group Sustainability Team is responsible for setting Finlays’ sustainability strategy, commitments, objectives, and targets. The Team also works to develop and put in place effective delivery plans and roadmaps within the business units, making sure effective accountability is in place.
Swire Sustainability Committee: The Sustainability Committee of Finlays’ parent company, John Swire & Sons Limited (Swire), oversees the approach to sustainability for its operating companies. Reports and updates are shared with the Committee at least twice a year to ensure alignment on approach and progress.
Corporate policies at James Finlay Limited are part of our compliance program and overseen by Finlays’ Corporate Affairs Director. The Compliance team ensures all employees understand and are able to access those policies. This is an important part of increasing awareness of key policies within our businesses.
In November 2023 we started a review of all policies directly linked to our Code of Conduct. In March 2024, following completion of the review, the following policies were approved and shared with all employees:
Code of Conduct (LINK)
Anti-Money Laundering
Whistleblowing
Procurement
Competition Law
Anti-Bribery and Corruption
Conflicts of Interest
Gifts and Hospitality
Data Privacy
Political Activity and Charitable Donations
Internal stakeholders participated in the review of policies relevant to their day-to-day activities, and a company-wide communication was sent to everyone with access to our global policies.
In the coming months we will be updating the following policies in partnership with internal stakeholders (IT, Sustainability and Finance), with a view to completion by the end of 2024:
Human Rights
Fraud
Sanctions
Environment
Cookie
Intellectual Property and Confidentiality
Document Retention
Internal audit
Finlays Group has an extensive Internal Audit function that monitors financial and certain non-financial aspects of the business. It, in turn, is monitored by a series of committees that report to a Group Audit Committee comprising one independent non-executive director and two representatives of John Swire & Sons (Swire). In addition, the Group Managing Director, Group Finance Director, and Director of Corporate Affairs also attend the Group Audit Committee meetings together with the Group Internal Auditor and, as required, a representative from our external auditors, Grant Thornton.
The risk management program at James Finlay Limited is operated via a corporate risk register (CRR), which is a Board responsibility and records and tracks the risks that management is concerned about. The CRR document is a live document that sets a risk agenda which can be included in the company’s business plan. The program itself is overseen by the Corporate Affairs Director and the Compliance Manager.
Identification: Executives identify a range of risks in workshops, and management agrees the top risks based on a standardized risk taxonomy.
Quantification/dimensioning: Executives define, describe, and score risks in dimensioning workshops, evaluating risks by considering scenarios in which they might occur and breaking out scores by impact and vulnerability.
Mitigation and action plan: A subject matter expert (SME) works with the Compliance Manager to review the risk profile and develop mitigation measures via a questionnaire. Management agrees action plans to target specific impacts and vulnerabilities as part of the business plan.
Reporting: Risks are monitored, reported, and visualized on a risk heatmap and various dashboards using the Risk360 integrated risk management platform.
In 2023, members of Finlays’ global management team, assisted by the Sustainability team, conducted an exercise to understand the nature of climate risks to the business. This was done using the framework defined by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The process was facilitated by our parent company (Swire) and a third-party expert.
This includes financial information from Damin at 49.51% to reflect Finlays’ proportional share.