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WEETABIX LIMITED

2019 Sustainability Review

During 2019, our Sustainability Steering Group have developed a plan that will implement our strategy against the ‘Change for Better’ framework. This connects existing sustainability activities, reflects what our consumers, colleagues, retail partners and suppliers expect of us, and helps us embed good governance within our management structure.

This review marks the next step in our journey. We plan to publish a more expansive and detailed report in 2020 to include more data on our performance and further targets for improvement.

I would like to thank all of the colleagues and partners who have helped us create the responsible business we are today and look forward to working with them as we develop our plans to create an ever more sustainable future together.

Sally Abbott Managing Director Weetabix UK & Ireland

1 Sustainable ingredients 2 Reducing packaging

waste 3 Efficient operations 4 Health &

wellbeing

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WELCOME TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY REVIEWWeetabix Food Company is a responsible business that is proud to have nourished the nation since 1932. We aim to make the lives of all our stakeholders better in ways that are important to them - whether we are buying their ingredients, filling their breakfast bowl or helping them build a rewarding career.

Now more than ever, consumers are concerned about whether a company like Weetabix is behaving responsibly before buying our products or rewarding us with their loyalty. They want to understand how we are acting in ways that are good for them, better for the environment and valuable for society.

We remain committed to continuously strengthening our approach towards sustainability in the ways we develop, manufacture and market our family favourite products such as Alpen, Ready brek and Weetabix. Whether that is through long-standing commitments such as sourcing all our Weetabix wheat from within 50 miles of our Northamptonshire factory or new strides forward in our continual improvement of the nutritional profile of our products. A passion for progress is something all of us working at Weetabix share.

Last year we committed to refresh our approach to sustainability, reinvigorating the thinking that has guided us for 87 years. Over the last 12 months we have fully reviewed our programmes and overhauled our framework to reflect our commitment. The ‘Change for Better’ framework will focus our work in four key areas:

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CHANGE FOR BETTERIn 2019, Weetabix Food Company undertook a review of its sustainability framework, policy and plans. The conclusions were presented to our executive board and they gave the go ahead for the creation of a clear framework and programme that demonstrates our continued commitment to sustainability.

The review identified we already have clear and active commitments towards helping consumers eat healthily, reducing waste, saving energy, creating employment opportunities, undertaking responsible marketing and working with suppliers to raise standards of production. It also identified opportunities for us to improve our approach towards sustainable sourcing and make employee welfare a more active part of our sustainability programme.

From this, we have created the ‘Change for Better’ framework that focuses our work in four key areas – sustainable ingredients, reducing packaging waste, efficient operations and health & well-being. Under these pillars, 12 areas have been identified to focus our activity founded on strong communication, reporting and governance.

Our Sustainability Steering Group led this work and have developed an implementation plan to put our strategy against the ‘Change for Better’ framework into action. They have drawn on industry best practice and developed an approach that fits with our ethos and business model. This will connect existing sustainability activities, reflect the expectations of our consumers, customers, colleagues and partners, draw on established systems or standards used by the business and evolve governance within our existing management structure.

Certified raw materials

Reduced impact wheat

Supplier engagement

Sustainable ingredients

VISION

PILLARS

FOCUSES

FOUNDATION

Packaging footprint

Plastic reduction

Sustainable sourcing

Reducing packaging waste

Energy

Waste

Water

Efficient operations

Good food you can trust

Our people

Our communities

Health & well-being

CHANGE FOR BETTER – for our world, business and our communities

Communications, reporting and governance

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SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENTSAt Weetabix Food Company we are committed to responsible production at every step of the journey from field to breakfast table.

Working with SuppliersWe are working actively with our partners to improve the sustainability of our supply chain.

We are one of only 280 companies across the world to receive Standard Corporate Certification from The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. This follows an assessment of our procurement and supply operations against internationally respected standards. We are currently in the process of reviewing our contracts with all suppliers and will be ensuring updated ethical standards are incorporated into all of them.

Every year we conduct a supplier survey to gather feedback about how we work and identify new opportunities for collaboration. In 2018, over 75 per cent of our suppliers consider Weetabix to be collaborative and innovative. We are committed to improving this positive sentiment amongst our supply chain partners over the coming year.

The Weetabix Growers Group The Weetabix Growers Group is a collective of approved local farmers who have volunteered to grow, harvest and store the finest quality wheat for the nation’s favourite breakfast brand.

Together, they help us work to the Weetabix Wheat Protocol. First established in 2010, our Wheat Protocol guides us in sourcing Weetabix wheat each year from farms located within a 50 mile radius of our mills in Northamptonshire. It pushes beyond the requirements of Red Tractor Assurance and Entry Level Environmental Stewardship schemes to further reduce food miles and fertiliser usage.

All farmers meet Red Tractor standards

for fertiliser use

No nitrogen application after growth stage 47

N7

Nitrogen

Higher than or entry level environmental

stewardship

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Working to the protocol brings many benefits; boosting the ability of local farmers to invest in higher standards and providing great tasting wheat for British breakfast bowls across the country. During the last decade, over 350 local farmers have participated in the scheme, growing approximately 75,000 metric tonnes of wheat each year across more than 4 million acres, equivalent to almost 3,000 football pitches.

Ingredient Initiatives To help reduce carbon emissions and promote well-being, all of our raw material suppliers are contractually obliged to meet Weetabix sustainability standards.

For example, for some applications, such as flour milling, further nitrogen is often applied to wheat crops in the latter stages of growth to increase the protein content. At Weetabix we request that our growers stop adding nitrogen during these phases. This means a reduction in fertiliser usage, food miles (because farmers do not need to use the tractor to apply the fertiliser) and ultimately carbon emissions associated with production.

Weetabix is a member of Sedex, the global organisation that helps businesses share responsible sourcing data on supply chains. We use this to help us ensure suppliers are meeting standards on labour rights, health and safety, the environment and business ethics.

We are working with other supply chain bodies, including the Roundtable on Responsible Palm Oil (RSPO), to ensure our ingredients are supplied to recognisably sustainable standards. We have begun to move towards certifiable sources of sustainable cocoa for use across our range of products.

Farmer James Wheeler, whose farm in Northamptonshire supplies wheat through Gleadell to Weetabix, said: “Being part of the Growers Group means we operate to strict protocols and work closely with Weetabix. This makes sure the very best British wheat makes it to breakfast tables. In return, we get information to continuously improve our output. For example, for every truck of harvested wheat tipped at Weetabix’s manufacturing plant in Burton Latimer, we receive a text back that tells us key information about the quality of our grain. This helps us monitor our harvest output in real time.”

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REDUCING PACKAGING WASTE

Minimising footprintAt Weetabix Food Company, minimising the impact of our packaging on the environment has been a long standing focus. As a result:

Today, 90 per cent of our packaging is widely recyclable in publicly available facilities. We have set a target to raise this to 100 per cent by 2025

We aim to introduce 30 per cent recycled plastic (rPET) into our Weetabix On the Go breakfast drinks bottles ahead of the UK government target for increasing recycled content

We were an early adopter of the On-Pack Recycling Label scheme six years ago to help deliver a simple, consistent and UK-wide recycling message to consumers

We have reduced our plastic packaging by 12 per cent since 2007 and plan a further 18 per cent reduction by 2025

We have work streams within our business dedicated to reducing the overall impact of our packaging. We are following the goals of environmental charity the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) for reducing waste and using resources more sustainably. As a result, we are working closely with our suppliers and customers to ensure we create change for the better.

We continue to ensure any modifications made to our packaging will not compromise the progress we have already made on reducing food waste and packaging weight, and therefore emissions.

Most importantly though, we will ensure the changes do not impact the safety or quality of the food that ends up on consumers’ tables.

On-pack labellingWeetabix introduced the traffic light labelling system to our cereal packs in 2016. We were one of the first cereal companies to share our nutritional credentials in this simple, transparent way.

We want to make it easy for people to make a healthy choice. Weetabix has the easy-to-read traffic lights on all of its cereal packs to help shoppers to make a quick, informed decision. As the UK’s number one cereal brand, we believe we have a responsibility to provide best-practice food labelling.

Energy574kJ

136kcal

7%

Fat

0.8g

1%

Saturates

0.2g

1%

Sugars

1.7g

2%

Salt

0.10g

2%

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EFFICIENT OPERATIONSOver the past 87 years, we have built a global centre of manufacturing excellence in Northamptonshire. We are continually investing in our manufacturing processes to ensure that the nation’s favourite cereals, bars and drinks are made efficiently and to the highest standards of quality.

The careful management of energy, water and waste is an important part of our sustainability strategy.

Reducing Energy To help us manage and reduce the carbon emissions associated with operations on our sites, Weetabix Food Company is part of the EU’s emissions trading system. We generate the majority of electricity for our manufacturing at Burton Latimer through an on-site Combined Heat & Power Plant.

Through the ongoing review of our sustainability programmes, we have identified the need to evolve the way we monitor and report on our energy usage and are in the process of appointing a dedicated Energy Manager to help us continue to develop our approach. The Sustainability Steering Group will be working with them to set policy, refresh energy management programmes and monitor targets for energy or emissions reduction over the coming year.

With the help of independent experts, by the end of 2020, Weetabix will complete an up to-date carbon footprint assessment. This will then create a benchmark which we can use to set continuous CO2 reduction targets for each tonne of manufacturing output produced.

Minimising WasteWe are proud that none of our waste has been sent to landfill from our manufacturing and distribution sites since 2016.

We are committed to maintaining our zero waste to landfill approach, whilst working to reduce the amount of waste produced by our operations.

We work with our charity partner, Fareshare, to maintain our zero food to waste status by reducing surplus stock and food waste before it occurs. They help us redistribute quality, in date surplus food to vulnerable people in our society through a network of charities and community groups.

We are committed to further improvement in minimising the food surplus associated with our operations. By the end of 2025, we have set a target to reduce our total annual food surplus by 20 per cent.

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Conserving WaterThrough our investment and improvement programme, we are on track to meet our long-term pledge to reduce water usage at our production facilities by 20 per cent in 2020 versus our 2007 consumption, despite increasing our manufacturing output.

Ensuring our sites are in top condition is an important element of water conservation. We have a programme of continuous improvement to help us to reduce water usage even further over the next five years.

Our Sustainability Steering Group will oversee the establishment of a programme and continuous improvement targets for water reduction over the coming year.

Modernising ManufacturingIn 2017, we announced a £30 million capital investment programme across our UK manufacturing sites in Burton Latimer and Corby.

The creation of new production capacity will significantly raise volumes to match rising sales of the iconic Weetabix biscuits both at home and overseas. The new manufacturing plant has been designed and specified to ensure it helps reduce our environmental footprint, requiring less energy, reducing emissions and improving our production efficiency.

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HEALTH & WELLBEINGEnsuring the wellbeing of people across our company and supply chain, as well as supporting consumers in providing products that support healthy lifestyles, are important parts of our ‘Change for Better’ framework.

At Weetabix Food Company, we are actively contributing to the health and wellbeing of our employees, the local communities we work in, the suppliers and retail partners we work with, and fundamentally, those who enjoy eating (or drinking) our products.

Good Food You Can TrustA healthier and tasty breakfast is a great start to any family’s day. It is the reason Weetabix, the nation’s favourite cereal, was created more than 87 years ago.

We are dedicated to bringing delicious and nutritious breakfast choices to the UK, and helping shoppers to make informed choices.

Did you know?

• All of our branded cereal products have nutritional traffic light information on pack – with only amber and green traffic lights across our range of cereals.

• Weetabix branded cereals already have less sugar than Public Health England’s guidelines for 2020.

• Weetabix and Ready brek are one of the lowest salt, sugar and fat cereal options available and are eligible to use the Change4Life Good Choices badge.

• Weetabix Original is packed with 95 per cent wholegrain wheat, is low in fat, low in sugar and high in fibre. With 136 calories in a two biscuit serving, it provides one third of the recommended daily intake of Thiamine (B1) Riboflavin (B2), Niacin, Folic Acid and Iron.

• Alpen Muesli is the UK’s number one muesli brand and both our Original and No Added Sugar products are made with 100 per cent natural ingredients, are high in fibre, low in saturated fat and made from wholegrains.

Nutrition is at the core of The Weetabix Food Company and we are proud to have been nourishing the nation since 1932. Providing a healthy, nutritionally balanced, and ultimately tasty breakfast that all the family can enjoy, Weetabix offers a balanced boost of energy required to kick start the day and keep people going until their next meal.

Did you know:

• None of our cereal brands are high in sugar according to the traffic light labelling scheme.

• Over the past five years, Weetabix has undertaken 15 reformulation and technology projects across our range of products to further reduce the amount of sugar contained within them.

• We’ve reduced the amount of sugar in our wholegrain chocolate cereal Weetos by more than 20 per cent since 2015.

• Reformulation means that our Alpen and Alpen Light bars have 20 per cent less sugar, while increasing fibre across the range.

• Between 2015 to 2019, we reduced the amount of sugar used in our production by over 3,000 tonnes, or the equivalent to 800 million sugar cubes.

• We have been working to reduce sugar across our ‘Weetabix On The Go’ drinks range. Since its introduction in 2014, we have undertaken three sugar reduction steps, removing 10 per cent in 2015, a further 10 per cent by the end of 2016 and an additional 30 per cent reduction in 2017.

• We have reduced the amount of sugar in our Weetabix On the Go drinks from 22g in a 250ml bottle to 12g. With over half of this remaining amount coming from the milk content of the drink, rather than being added.

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Looking After Our PeopleUltimately, a company is only as good as the people within it. We are always striving to make our workplaces fair, empowering and inclusive, so people can be at their best.

Our annual staff survey provides fair and honest feedback that our award-winning HR department turn into real action to ensure we attract, retain and reward our biggest asset – the people that make the ‘Weetabix Difference.’

Some examples of our initiatives include:

• The ‘Weetaflex’ portal that allows employees to personalise their benefits package to include pension plans, private medical insurance, enhanced parental leave and access to our Cycle to Work scheme, all on top of our flexible working policy.

• Weetabix has a median gender pay gap of just 6.6 per cent. We work hard to ensure there is no unconscious bias in our decision making processes, and that all our people are remunerated and rewarded based on performance and contribution alone.

• ‘Weetalearn’ is a centralised, paperless platform that allows people right across the business to take control of their own learning and development. We’ve empowered people to learn whenever and wherever they want from experts in the business and selected third party providers.

Weetabix Apprenticeship SchemeAt Weetabix we are not just focused on our current talent, we are also committed to developing the talent of the future. We have a regular programme of local school visits to raise their awareness of potential careers in manufacturing or engineering.

Since 2016, we have also launched the Weetabix Apprenticeship Scheme with Tresham College in Northamptonshire, working to bring young people into our business so that they can reach their full potential, and help inspire the next generation of talent into the food industry.

Weetabix is committed to retaining its values as a great place to work. At the heart of that commitment is our dedication to have the most highly trained, knowledgeable and passionate team members to propel the vision and performance of our business. Operations remain the engine-room of our business, so continuing our strong manufacturing leadership and engineering development programme is of paramount importance to us.

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James Bell, Weetabix Apprentice, said: “I am a manufacturing apprentice fulfilling a role as maintenance planner at Weetabix’s most complex factory in Burton Latimer. The job requires me to work and plan with a variety of contractors and internal Weetabix teams, ensuring we deliver what is promised to the business to help drive improvement and bring innovative products to consumers. This could be in maintenance and reliability to improve plant performance, or in the installation of new equipment and projects.”

“For me to be in this position at such a young age, and to have this level of influence and responsibility in a big organisation is great for my development and something that drives me every day. As well as learning on the job, I also study at Tresham College in Kettering. At the end of the programme I will have achieved NVQ Level 3 in Business Improvement Techniques.”

“I was drawn to a job in manufacturing because of my love for the BBC TV show Inside the Factory and a fascination with how things are made. I went through a two-stage interview process and was lucky enough to get the job – and I haven’t looked back since.”

Community SupportAt Weetabix Food Company, doing the responsible thing sits at the heart of everything we do. We support three main charities through fundraising and surplus stock donations - Cransley Hospice, FareShare UK and GroceryAid.

Cransley Hospice Trust was chosen as a charity partner by Weetabix employees and we support a number of fund-raising events to raise money for the charity. Cransley Hospice provides holistic care to patients living with life-limiting illness in North Northamptonshire, near where we are based. They provide specialist end-of-life care for patients with complex needs and support them in their chosen place of care at the end of life, whether this is in the Hospice or in the patient’s home.

FareShare is the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, fighting hunger and food waste by redistributing good food that would otherwise go to waste to frontline charities and community groups supporting vulnerable people – including homeless hostels, children’s breakfast clubs and lunch clubs for older people. Without the current supply of FareShare food, one in five charities would close down. We donate our surplus stock and help FareShare’s army of volunteers redistribute food to charities across the East Midlands and beyond.

Weetabix is also a long term supporter of our industry charity GroceryAid. They have been looking after people in the grocery industry for 160 years. First founded in 1857 as the National Grocers’ Benevolent Fund (NGBF), today thousands of people, including independent retailers, supermarket employees, production line workers, wholesalers and delivery drivers, turn to GroceryAid for financial support and practical assistance.

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WEETABIX 2019 SUSTAINABILITY REVIEW

Key Performance Indicators Overview

SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENTS

Supplier Partnerships • Accredited to Standard Corporate Certification from The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply.

• Committed to raising the proportion of suppliers that consider Weetabix to be collaborative and innovative above 75 per cent by 2020.

Wheat Sourcing • Created Weetabix Growers Group in 2010, a collective of approved local farmers grow, harvest and store the finest quality wheat.

• Specially developed Wheat Protocol to guide sourcing of wheat from farms within a 50 mile radius of mills in Northamptonshire.

• Wheat Protocol pushes beyond requirements of Red Tractor Assurance and Entry Level Environmental Stewardship schemes.

Sustainable Ingredients • All ingredient suppliers contractually obliged to meet Weetabix sustainability standards.

• Member of Sedex to ensure suppliers meet standards on labour rights, health & safety, the environment and business ethics.

• Working with supply chain bodies, such as Roundtable on Responsible Palm Oil (RSPO), to ensure ingredients from recognisably sustainable sources.

PACKAGING

Minimising Footprint • 90 per cent of packaging widely recyclable, with a target of 100 per cent by 2025.

• Early adopter of On-Pack Recycling Label scheme to help deliver simple, consistent recycling messages to consumers.

• Working towards 30 per cent rPET in Weetabix On The Go bottles ahead of government targets set for recycled content in 2022.

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EFFICIENT OPERATIONS

Reducing Energy • Operate within EU emissions trading system.

• Carbon Footprint assessment completed by 2020 to create a benchmark for CO2 reduction targets.

Minimising Waste • No waste sent to landfill from manufacturing and distribution sites since 2016.

• Work with charity partner Fareshare to identify ways to reduce surplus stock and waste before it occurs.

Conserving Water • On track to reduce water usage at production facilities by 20 per cent in 2020 versus 2015 consumption.

• Sustainability Steering Group will oversee development of a programme and targets for water reduction by the end of 2020.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Good Food You Can Trust • All Weetabix branded products have nutritional traffic light information on pack – with only amber and green ratings.

• Weetabix branded cereals already have less sugar than Public Health England’s guidelines for 2020.

• From 2015 to 2019, reduced sugar used in cereal production by over 3,000 tonnes, or the equivalent to 800 million sugar cubes.

• Over five years, sugar content of ‘Weetabix On The Go’ reduced by 45 per cent.

Looking After Our People • Developed ‘Weetalearn’ platform to allow people across the business to take control of their own learning and development.

• Weetabix Apprenticeship Scheme with Tresham College in Northampton, working to help young people into business and inspire next generation of talent into food industry.

Supporting Communities • Supporting Cransley Hospice Trust, caring for patients living with life-limiting illness, through fund-raising events.

• Donating surplus stock and helping FareShare redistribute food to charities across the East Midlands and beyond.

• Long term support for GroceryAid, the industry charity looking after people in the grocery industry for 160 years.

2010 – Remove almost 1,000 tonnes of packaging per annum from the supply chain

2010 – Weetabix establishes Growers Group

2016 – First cereal brand to introduce traffic light labelling on pack

2016 – Apprenticeship scheme launched

2018 – Charity partnerships with Fareshare UK and GroceryAid

2016 – Zero waste to landfill

2017 - £30 million invested in manufacturing lines to improve efficiency

2018 – Weetabix cereals already

have less sugar than PHE 2020

guidelines

2019 – Launch of ‘Change for Better’ sustainability framework

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STEPS TO A BETTER

FUTURE FOR EVERYONE

CONNECT WITH USThank you for reading our sustainability review. We hope you found the information you were looking for.

At Weetabix Food Company, our core goal is to provide tasty, nutritious products that nourish the nation. We’re committed to doing this sustainably, meeting our responsibilities to all our stakeholders, and we’re always striving to find new ways to meet our commitments.

If you’re interested in following our sustainability journey you can connect with us via our website: weetabix.co.uk