Denmark's Bestseller signs audit agreement

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Oct 22, 2015

Bestseller, the Danish brandhouse that has labels like Vero Moda, Vila, Only and Jack & Jones, is collaborating with companies including Levi's and H&M to create a common audit standard for the industry.

The decision was taken after the annual sustainable apparel coalition membership meeting in Japan last week. Currently, many companies have their own social audit standards and methods, which takes a lot of time and resources for suppliers to manage.

The new project, ‘Social and Labor Convergence Project', will see apparel brands, retailers, verification companies, industrial organisations and NGO’s committing to working towards aligning all standards and making one audit manual.

“In Bestseller we are excited about this new opportunity to find more effective and efficient ways of raising labour standards at industry level and work on continuous improvements. We acknowledge the challenge to agree on a common standard, but with the experiences gained from similar cooperative approaches, e.g. the Bangladesh Accord, we believe that the industry is ready to work on finding joint solutions on this matter too,” says Katrine Milman, CSR Responsible in Bestseller.

Bestseller said it is part of a working group that will develop this audit manual, and once agreed upon, it will replace the company's existing audit manual.