At Ellis Brigham we pride ourselves on being a business with exemplary core values. We are customer focused, expert in our advice, and aim to be a fun place to work.

We are a technical mountain, outdoor clothing and accessories retailer, selling third party brands through our stores and online channels. We are passionate about the outdoors and our commitment to provide excellent customer service every day. We started in 1933 in a small shop on Conran Street in Harpurhey, Manchester and quickly established ourselves as the place to visit to have boots expertly made, fitted and to decide on that important personalised nailing pattern.

Ellis Brigham is still going strong and is still proudly family-owned. We’ve got the world’s best brands and amazing products that will make your time spent in the mountains even more rewarding. Across the UK we have 18 fantastic shops with friendly, knowledgeable staff who are all enthusiastic about the outdoors and understand implicitly your needs. Our shops bring the spirit of the mountains to the high street.

Within all these values, respecting people and the planet are paramount, therefore our Modern Slavery Statement flows from that. Our business consists of supplying third party brands that we believe in from a performance and ethical viewpoint.

Over the next few years aim to move to exclusively supplying brands that can prove themselves to us wholly on their ethical, social and environmental credentials alongside their technical performance. It’s what we believe, what we understand our customers want, and what is the right thing to do to protect our sports and our planet.

Introduction

This statement sets out Ellis Brigham’s actions to understand all potential modern slavery risks related to its business and to put in place steps that are aimed at ensuring that there is no slavery or human trafficking in our business and our supply chains. This statement relates to actions and activities during the financial year 1 July 2024 to 31 June 2025.        

As part of the retail sector, we recognise our responsibility to take a robust approach to slavery and human trafficking. The business is absolutely committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in its corporate activities, and to ensuring that its supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.

Countries of operation and supply

The business currently operates in the following countries:

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Whistleblowing Policy

The organisation encourages all its colleagues, customers and other business partners to report any concerns related to the direct activities, or the supply chains of the organisation. This includes any circumstances that may give rise to an enhanced risk of slavery or human trafficking. The organisation's whistleblowing procedure is designed to make it easy for colleagues to make disclosures, without fear of retaliation.

Recruitment Policy

Every person working for us, our suppliers and factories does so out of their own choice - with no forced, bonded or involuntary labour and no human trafficking or slavery. We believe every employee should be free to leave their employer after a reasonable notice period if they want to.

Whilst primarily using our in-house retail and marketing departments, we use only specified, reputable employment agencies to source labour and always verify the practices of any new agency we are using before accepting colleagues from that agency. We make sure that each labour provider is compliant with current legislation including the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

We are committed to ensuring that our suppliers adhere to the highest standards of ethics. We are constantly striving to strengthen our mission of protecting people and planet. Suppliers are required to demonstrate that they provide safe working conditions where necessary, treat colleagues with dignity and respect, and act ethically and within the law in their use of labour.

We work with suppliers to ensure that they meet the standards of the code and improve their worker's working conditions. Serious violations of the organisation's supplier code of conduct will lead to the termination of the business relationship.

We enforce our suppliers via our general terms and conditions, and we are committed to make further improvements by self-audit and engaging 3rd parties to complete independent ethical checks including rolling out a new supply chain compliance programme and committing to independent regular audits.

Ellis Brigham will only accept merchandise if fundamental rights have been taken into consideration. By this we mean:

• Management practice that respect the rights of all employees, including the right to free association and collective bargaining.

• No child labour.

• No forced, indentured, involuntary, illegal or bonded colleagues are used in the production of goods.

• No labour which involves physical or mental abuse while producing our merchandise. Hours of work shall comply with applicable laws and local industry standards.

• Wages are paid regularly, on time and be fair in respect of work performance.

• A safe and healthy environment for those who are involved in the production of our merchandise.