- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Pramod Thomas
BRITISH online fashion retailer Boohoo on Thursday(26) said that it has appointed retired judge Brian Leveson to independently check the firm’s efforts to improve supply chain and business practices.
The group said Leveson would report directly to the Boohoo board and his reports would be published.
An independent review in September this year has found several failings in the supply chain of the company in England after allegations about working conditions and low pay, and set out steps to tackle the problems.
Boohoo had accepted all the recommendations of the review.
The company said Leveson had also appointed both legal, and independent inquiry and enforcement specialists to supplement the company’s ‘agenda for change’ programme.
“Boohoo has recognised that it must institute and embed change so that everyone involved in the group’s supply chain is treated fully in accordance with the law and the principles of ethical trading,” said Leveson.
He is best known for heading a 2011-12 inquiry into British press standards after Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid admitted hacking thousands of phones to produce ever-more salacious stories.
He retired as a judge last year.
Earlier this month, Boohoo also appointed KPMG to assist with the programme.
Despite its supply chain problems Boohoo has traded strongly through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Its shares were up 1.7 per cent in early trading on Thursday, valuing the business at £3.71 billion($4.96 billion).
Founded in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, Boohoo expanded its operations quickly, listing its shares in 2014. It sells fashion, beauty and products and shoes aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds.
