Promotion of Fair and Transparent Business Activities

Enterprises are expected to fulfill valuable roles in society and profit accordingly through fair and free competition.

In particular, in our relationships with suppliers, we are expected to make efforts to ensure fair transactions and to mutually improve transaction conditions.

To ensure fair and transparent business with our partners, FamilyMart has established a Basic Ethics and Compliance Policy. With this policy, we have thoroughly complied with competition laws, including the Anti-Monopoly Act and the Subcontract Act, prohibition of all forms of corruption, including bribery, and other related laws and regulations.

Our aim is to build good partnerships through two-way communication with business partners and to grow with them.

For employees in procurement, purchasing, and other related departments, we provide regular compliance and legal training based on our Basic Ethics and Legal Compliance Policy. In addition, we regularly provide training on sustainable procurement and other topics. Furthermore, we developed our company-wide “fair trade manual,” which allows all employees to check the contents of the Anti-Monopoly Act and the Subcontract Act at any time. We also created a guidebook that outlines bribery related to entertainment and gifts by business partners which are in principle prohibited business practices.

Strong partnerships with our business partners, founded on mutual understanding and relationships of trust, are essential for FamilyMart’s sustained growth. We regularly share information with our business partners on trends in the convenience store industry, our product strategies, and our efforts to contribute to SDGs.

FamilyMart has established a Business Partner Helpline with an external specialist as a contact point for consultation and reporting on the safety and security of products handled by our company, business violations of laws and regulations related with our company, human rights, and inappropriate employee behavior. In addition, we periodically send out our Business Partner Surveys to survey business partner compliance.

For each consultation or survey response, we confirm the facts in cooperation with our business partners and related departments. We then take appropriate measures such as corrective and remedial actions and preventive measures to help form a sound and good partnership with our business partners.

To deliver safe and reliable products, it is essential that employees at our ready-to-eat product manufacturing bases understand FamilyMart’s quality and hygiene management standards and maintain a high level of shared awareness regarding food safety and reliability. FamilyMart holds meetings twice a year with the quality control managers at ready-to-eat product manufacturing subcontractors and provides feedback on how to strengthen quality and hygiene management based on the results of factory audits and bacterial tests, both from the perspective of preventive and heuristic control. We also share good practices and incident cases to improve self-management.