Hembal’s mission is to make nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food with minimal impact on animals and the environment. We strive to act ethically and with integrity in all aspects of our business, and we take a zero tolerance approach to any instance of modern slavery within our business and its supply chains. 

We are fully committed to compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and recognize the importance of taking all necessary action to combat modern slavery in all its forms including slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labor and human trafficking. 

Organization and business structure

Hembal creates and sells complete food products – sold in the forms of powder, liquids and solids.  We primarily sell our products online directly to consumers, although some products are now being sold through third party retailers.  Our products are sold globally with the largest markets being the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Pacific. Our ingredients are sourced from around the world, and our products are manufactured and packaged in the US.

Our global headquarters are in Joplin, MO USA, we have 5 employees, an 8 person advisory board.

Our supply chain

Our products are comprised of plant-derived ingredients, primarily in the form of powders and liquids, which are sourced globally either directly from suppliers, or via agents and distributors. Our key source countries for ingredients are the US, Canada, China and UK. Our primary and secondary packaging is sourced from the UK, Europe, US, and Mexico. Packaging materials include paper, cardboard, and plastic.

Our direct and indirect supply chains include services that are not specifically used in our products but support the operation of our business such as marketing agencies, professional advisor fees, our facilities and warehouses. These service providers are located primarily within the countries where our offices are located but can extend globally for any specialty items or service which cannot be obtained domestically.

Internal Policies

At Hembal we want to provide our employees (also known as Hembalists) with a safe and fair working environment that protects their human rights. We currently have the following measures in place:

• Right to work checks are conducted for all potential employees in accordance with relevant legislation;
• Employee contracts to protect fundamental rights in the workplace;
• Hembal Culture Handbook which describes our preferred way of working, doing business in a fair way, and treating each other and those we work with outside of Hembal with honesty and respect;
• Working at Hembal Handbook which includes a commitment to equal opportunities, a safe working environment that is free from discrimination and a whistleblowing procedure for employees if they see anything that they think goes against our expected ways of working;
• All new employees complete a people team induction during which both the Culture and Working at Hembal handbooks are discussed.

Hembal will occasionally use internally approved recruitment agencies, in which case the agency is expected to adhere to the policies outlined in the Working at Hembal Handbook. 

We also ask our employees to support our commitment to combat modern day slavery.  We are currently developing our induction program content and additional staff training to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Due Diligence

Hembal recognizes that the biggest risk of slavery and human trafficking is in our global ingredient supply chain and as such have focused our efforts in these areas. We undertake the following actions within our supplier approval process to prevent slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain:

• Hembal undertakes an annual risk assessment for all potential ingredient sourcing countries to identify the likely level of risk for both modern slavery and other human rights issues. This risk assessment guides the level of investigation and certification that we require before sourcing from a new supplier;
• All new suppliers are required to complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire indicating their approach to the protection of human rights and against modern slavery within their organization. Any indicators of risk are followed up as appropriate with either a request for further information, a visit, commitment for corrective actions or an independent audit;
• Hembal is a member of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex) and we use the information available via this platform to assist in identifying and managing risk within our existing ingredient suppliers;
• We continuously monitor the performance of our suppliers and conduct regular supplier visits to ensure supplier compliance against our technical, quality and sustainability standards.

Over the following year we will be undertaking more research and developing action plans to further our understanding of the likely risk of modern slavery occurring within the supply chains for ingredients that we source from high risk countries.

Thanks

Thanks for reading, we hope that you have found this statement useful.  We have a monumental mission that we take very seriously and our compliance to the Modern Slavery Act is one of the ways we show this.

This statement has been approved by our Board of Directors.

Joshua Dunn – CEO Hembal

December 2021