CEO STATEMENT STAYING FOCUSED With a year of more lockdowns, customers severely challenged or going out of business, piled stock volumes, rising prices and longer lead times, it would be easy to draw back and lower ambitions until the storm has passed. There is no part of our business or any partner not affected by the pandemic crisis. We are all in the same boat, and we must all help each other to shore, by sharing solutions and efforts. PARTNERSHIPS ARE KEY Knowing that no one is left unaffected makes it natural to create solutions together or for each other. When needed, shop customers were granted longer credits. Our new collections were adjusted to incorporate more colours from previous to help our customers avoid depreciations and over buying, and through campaigns on our web-shop we shared with consumer recommended shop customers some of the profit from our web-shop sales. Downstream we knew that our goods had the same cost and value as before the crisis, so we did not ask for discounts from our suppliers. When we got longer credit, it was mutually agreed. And we took all the goods, we had in production. We are lucky to say that all long-term or key suppliers remain in business and with us. At the same time, because we work directly with Tier 2 suppliers, especially fabric makers and laundries, we have been able to keep a high standard in product development and get access to their newest developments and technology. The fast technological development in long distance meetings on Teams/Zoom/Skype made a huge impact on the “presence” in each other’s lives. WE DID NOT DECREASE OUR GOALS Instead, we increased our effort and stayed focused on our goals. In fact, we added to them and learned more than we had aimed for, also this year. Traditional selling by physically showing samples has been totally disrupted, and the digital/virtual tools are more relevant than ever. Our team is dedicated to learning and come far, and we see ahead a very positive sustainable development in making samples in the years to come. New e-Flow washing techniques and laundry machinery using substantially less water, chemicals and energy have high sustainable impact, and we have started to implement this in all product groups possible going forward. THE ROAD AHEAD And we learned, through focus. Moving into the 3rd year of our 3-year strategy implementing organic cotton, viscose derived from replanted forestry and solving the challenge of our use of plastic in the best possible way, we found the headline to the road ahead for a new strategy in our sustainability journey. We have decided that measurability will be our new focus in all that we do. Because when we can measure, we can start to learn what it takes to be truly sustainable. CONTINUED SUPPORT COZE AARHUS has been supporting the UN Global Compact since 2014 and continues to promote initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to the 10 principles. We also continue to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals and are still devoted to achieving the SDG goal 8, which involves the promotion of decent work and economic growth through long-term partnerships with our suppliers. We also reaffirm our contribution to the SDG goal 12 of ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns by producing long-lasting products using more sustainable materials and production processes. UPSTREAM FOCUS We believe in our business model of making available our products in pcs. as opposed to selling pre-defined assortments. And we have no minimum orders. This is a core value, which we believe is essential for all, especially in times of crisis, but certainly also in times of a sustainability emergency. Adding to this, with our strategic focus that min. 60% of the garments in a collection must be long-lasting in both style and quality (min. 2 of the same seasons) guides our design team and minimizes depreciations, both our own as well as those of our shop customers. More than half of our turnover comes from in-season basic stock essentials, based on present need instead of long-term expectation. ADDITIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS Through our achievements during the fiscal year (May 2020 - April 2021), amongst others, we have made public our own policies on animal welfare, child labour and anti-corruption, and implemented them in our cooperation agreements with suppliers. We prioritized our Nordic Swan Ecolabel product range over sonsumer demand in order to push that demand in the direction of the range with an increased marketing effort. We have implemented e-Flow washing technique in 3 product groups so far. We have also initialized our internal due diligence, which will be conducted in the coming fiscal year. However, our present overall strategic goals are still: 1. By 2022 using only cotton fibres that are grown, processed and certified according to organic standards. 2. By 2022 using only viscose made of wood pulp derived from certified renewed (FSC or PEFC) wood sources. 3. We want to find and incorporate an alternative, safe solution to plastic in all packaging. And these have been our main focus. SKOEDSTRUP, JUNE 2021 Cecilia Winther CEO, Coze Aarhus A/S 3 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT | COPYRIGHT © 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | COZE AARHUS A/S
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