Building our strategyDownload pdf version
Our sustainability strategy communicates our forward-looking approach to sustainability, and orients our business towards improved ESG performance. The strategy frames our most material ESG impacts and articulates our societal value proposition.
Developing the strategy enabled us to integrate existing sustainability projects with new initiatives, align these with the SDGs, and organise this under an umbrella framework of longer-term goal areas that align with our business model.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The sustainability strategy was developed and approved in 2019, as part of a structured review process involving relevant members of our executive and senior management team. We identified the three strategic focus areas and associated critical anchors following a thorough consideration of the following issues:
- Our business model – reviewing our current and anticipated revenue and cost drivers, our value chain activities, and the key resources and relationships (capital stocks) that we depend on to create value
- Our outcomes – assessing the impacts of our business activities on the six capitals across our value chain, identifying the most significant impacts (positive and negative) and our potential to exert influence
- The external environment – considering the most material sustainability-related trends, risks and opportunities, as well as the material interests of our key stakeholders from a global context to a South African perspective
- A benchmark review – assessing the implications of sustainability strategy best-practice, particularly across the FMCG sector
- Our strategy – reviewing the implications of (and for) our core business strategy, ensuring effective integration with our priority growth drivers and alignment with our core purpose.
The strategy comprises three clear focus areas: health and nutrition; enhanced livelihoods; and environmental stewardship. These focus areas address the key socio-economic and environmental challenges in our markets and represent the areas where we believe our business activities can make the most meaningful contribution to the SDGs. Our commitments under these pillars drive us to: promote healthy lifestyles and pursue commercial opportunities in health and nutrition; operate more efficiently and produce more ethical and sustainable products; and champion transformation in our supply chain and host communities.
These goal areas are underpinned by a set of critical anchors, which represent the foundational elements of our commitment to corporate responsibility and sustainability. The critical anchors are: ethical behaviour; purpose-led culture; food safety and quality; ethical supply chain practices; safety, health and environment; responsible marketing; and transparency, partnerships and stakeholder responsiveness.
Our operating context during the reporting period is characterised by intensifying market dynamics, shifting stakeholder expectations, and increasing complexity in which deepening social and environmental declines are becoming material to business performance. Consumer expectations are changing. There is increasing demand for affordability coupled with increasing concern for sustainability, and we are under increasing pressure from heightened competition in the retail sector on one hand, and growing investor interest in ESG performance on the other (see IR).
Meeting the needs of consumers is a core priority of the Tiger Brands’ growth strategy (see IR). The sustainability strategy supports this imperative, helping to align the growth drivers of the business with sustainability opportunities and trends. This forward-looking orientation is critical for our brand leadership and business success, as we aim to meet – and beat – the current and anticipated needs of consumers in a conscientised post-Covid-19 context.