Making a difference on diversity beyond our business

Five years on: huge growth in supplier diversity

Our Supplier Diversity Program in North America is a great example. We've been running it for five years now, and we've seen huge progress. We've tripled the amount we spend with woman-owned suppliers and doubled our spend with minority-owned businesses. We've also seen an enormous increase in our spend with LGBTQ-owned businesses and businesses owned by veterans. These strategic relationships broaden our supply base and help us champion inclusion within and beyond our business. But they also focus on cost, quality and service.

More diverse, more resilient, more cost effective

For example, our relationship with a LGBTQ-owned business which supplies all our rye for our Bulleit Rye brand (and 20% for other Bulleit variants) has meant we can drive long-term contracts to manage costs. Working with the woman-owned business that supplies the distinctive bags for our Crown Royal brand has driven cost savings, as has our partnership with an African American-owned supplier of key raw materials used in our Smirnoff Ice products.

Our North America program has been running since June 2015. We're increasingly asking our existing suppliers to demonstrate their commitment to diversity. For example, we strongly encourage our suppliers to increase their spend with diverse owned businesses.  Additionally, for the last two years we have asked our advertising agencies to share data on the gender balance within their organisations as well as their plans to drive inclusion and diversity. We are also taking a stand on issues through our involvement in collaborative groups such as the World Federation of Advertisers’ Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce and the United Nations Unstereotype Alliance. At the same time, we're keeping up our rapid progress on fostering inclusion and diversity within our workplaces – progress you can read about here