Case studies

All Coats employees share the responsibility for developing and maintaining a working environment that they can be proud of.  The foundations of this lie in everyone being treated with dignity and respect, while acting with honesty, integrity and fairness.  We encourage our employees to speak up if they feel this is not happening and to enable them to do so provide a confidential email address.

It is vitally important that everyone who represents (or acts on behalf of) Coats understands their role in upholding its responsible approach to business.  To promote this understanding, together with the international law firm Eversheds, we have developed a suite of three online training courses.  These three courses cover:

• Ethics in general including:
  • Fraud
  • Conflict of Interest
  • Environmental
  • Health and Safety
  • Employment (harassment, discrimination)
     
• Bribery and Corruption

• Competition Law

The courses, which have been translated into the 18 most common languages across Coats, were rolled out across the group geographically in a phased approach. By mid 2012 more than 4,000 of our senior employees and those with customer or supplier facing roles had completed this training.

Before the courses can be completed, a test on each subject must be taken and passed in order to confirm that the participant has read and understood the relevant Group policies.

We believe that this represents a significant step in ensuring that Coats senior employees, as well as those engaged in sales and procurement roles, have a clear understanding of our expectations. 

We value our workforce highly, employing over 22,000 people worldwide.  In order to deliver our business strategy, both now and in the future, we need to attract, retain and motivate employees with the necessary skills and talent across the company.

With operations in over 70 countries, it is therefore important to hear what our employees think about life across Coats. We do this through our annual employee engagement surveys.

The participation rate in our employee surveys is amazingly high and in 2011 93% of our employees took part.  This is much higher than the industry average of 79%.

Our overall engagement score (which reflects how employees feel about working at Coats) has increased by 6 percentage points, since December 2010, to 72%. This is a very encouraging result, outperforming the manufacturing industry norm of 67%.  The high score is testimony to the efforts of the many employees and managers who, over the past 12 months, have worked tirelessly to make Coats an even better place to work.  

On a global basis, we increased our engagement scores on all dimensions in the survey, including Teamwork, Communication, Learning and Development, Manager Effectiveness and Recognition.  We were especially pleased to see that the Employee Safety dimension received the highest rating in the survey, even exceeding the global benchmark.   Also noteworthy was that 72% responded favourably to questions about how well we action planned and responded to last year's survey.  

In the coming weeks and months, more detailed results will be shared amongst our colleagues through our bi-monthly newsletter, and we shall be running workshops to help managers communicate the results and create action plans with their teams.  

Our CEO has encouraged all managers to participate in our action planning workshops so that they can help shape the future and make Coats an even better place to work.  

Ensuring the safety of our employees is a top priority for Coats. We have a robust approach to minimising the risks to our employees and visitors to our business.

Driven by the efforts of local management, Coats factory in Bursa, Turkey, achieved remarkable improvement in its Health & Safety (H&S) performance from 2007 to 2009.  The “Recordable Rate” (reportable health and safety incidents per hundred full time employees) dropped from 3.29 in 2007 to 1.23 in 2009.  However, to secure further improvement, we recognised that a different strategy would be required.  Based on previous positive experience from across the group, we decided to implement a tool called Behaviour Based Safety (BBS), which Coats Turkey launched in July 2010.

The BBS road map is built upon the following ‘pillars’:

• Training the workforce to be safety conscious, to use safe work methods and embrace BBS principles
• Communication of H&S news / statistics / documents through billboards, posters and LCD screens
• Observation Teams consisting of volunteer employees (mostly from the factory floor) to carry out daily observations of co-workers against a checklist of items
• H&S Suggestion (“Red Tag”) System to encourage the workforce to report anything they might consider as a risk to safety
• Accident / Near Miss Investigation & Reporting to analyse all incidents for root causes and take preventive actions
• Recognition given to the employees and departments with high safety standards and performance, to encourage safe behaviour in others

In the relatively short time since Coats Turkey started its BBS journey towards a safer workplace, positive results have been achieved, with the Recordable Rate now at 1.10.

To ensure that we are meeting the expectations of our stakeholders, including our customers and the brands we supply, we have introduced a programme of auditing at our operations in China.  This helps us to make sure that we are adhering to our robust CR standards, as well as offering us opportunities to improve the way we operate. Starting in mid-2011, we introduced a training programme for employees that would help us do this.  The initiative progressed through two phases:

Certified CR Lead Auditor Training Programme

This external training programme (conducted by the Intertek testing agency) is designed to equip attendees with the skill sets, capabilities and up-to-date intelligence on environmental issues, practices and effective performance management.  It provides participants with a systematic and holistic approach to managing social compliance audits, covering the essential key topics, such as audit criteria/standards, typical codes of conduct, auditor professionalism, obtaining objective evidence, overall audit workflow, on-site audit processes, audit tools, writing corrective action plans, writing audit reports, etc.

Coats China’s Shenzhen unit sent participants from different functions (CR, HR, H&S, Procurement) to attend, and after five days comprehensive training, they all passed the training exam and were officially recognised as “CPI Certified CSR Auditors” by the Compliance Practitioners Initiative (CPI) and City & Guilds.

CR Internal Auditor Training Programme

In order to expand the CR Auditor Team within Coats China, the accredited Lead Auditors developed our own CR Internal Auditor Training Programme using the CPI materials, sharing their experience and knowledge by playing the trainer’s role.  A number of individuals from three business units and different departments were selected to participate in the training.  Following the classroom training participants underwent an assessment which they had to pass in order to become qualified Coats CR Internal Auditors.  So far 21 trainees have completed the programme and more training is planned.

Recycling is becoming increasingly important in a world coming to terms with the challenges of environmental and climatic change.   At home we are all learning to recycle glass, paper and plastic and for many of us recycling has become a part of our lifestyle.  At Coats we also take this issue very seriously and have developed products made from recycled raw materials in both our Crafts and Industrial divisions.

Rowan Purelife Recycled Handknitting Yarns

Under our Rowan handknitting brand we have introduced the Purelife collection of yarns made from recycled garments.   The first stage of the process is to sort the garments - these may be old and used, faulty, or even new - by colour and quality.  After being sterilised, the garments are then sorted by fibre composition (e.g. put all the 100% cotton ones together, all the 100% silk garments together etc.).  It is at this stage that superfluous parts such as any linings, buttons, ribbons, seams and trims are removed.  The sorted garments are then cut into pieces and introduced into a fabric shredder that reduces them to loose fibres.  These are then processed to make regenerated fibre, which is then spun into the cotton, silk and viscose yarns of high quality. 

In this way we not only recycle materials which might otherwise end up in a landfill, but we also produce yarns which can be made into fashionable garments with a vintage allure. Since launching the Purelife Revive and Renew brands three years ago, we have sold over 27 tonnes of yarn.

EcoVerde Industrial Sewing & Embroidery Threads

We recognise that consumers increasingly want to know more about the sustainability of the products they buy and how they are made.

Coats EcoVerde is the umbrella brand that we use for our range of environmentally friendly products which are intended for the garment industry.  Coats EcoVerde recycled polyester was the first of these products to be launched and is a sewing and embroidery thread range made from recycled plastic (PET) bottle flakes. 

The PET bottle is a very useful container but it is a problem for the environment as it is non-biodegradable.  With millions of such bottles being produced daily around the world, the disposal of the used bottles has become a major concern, but the EcoVerde range gives them a new lease of life!  The bottles are collected, washed, sorted, and ground into flakes which are then depolymerised back into their original components.  When this material is re-polymerised into chip form, extruded and drawn, it becomes a purified filament yarn from which EcoVerde recycled polyester sewing and embroidery threads are made.

Three versions of the thread have been produced: two designed for lockstitch and chain stitch derived stitch types, plus a trilobal version of EcoVerde recycled polyester, which has heightened lustre, for use in embroidery.

In addition to the recycled polyester range, Coats has its EcoVerde organic cotton sewing thread, made from the best quality Giza organic cotton staple fibre.  This is available in an undyed state (for sewing post-dyed garments), or in a wide selection of colours using only dyestuffs certified by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard).

At Coats we created a Restricted Substance List (RSL) which identifies all the harmful chemicals and dyestuffs which are not allowed into our thread and zip manufacturing processes.  We are proud of the fact that our RSL is considered to be one of the most rigorous in the industry.  Following are three examples where we have ‘gone the extra mile’ in reducing or eliminating potentially harmful substances from our zip manufacturing processes…

Although all of Coats standard enamel zip finishes are safe to the end consumer and meet all of the relevant international RSL standards, we have developed a range of water-based coloured enamel coatings which have effectively eliminated volatile organic compounds (VOC) onsite.  The main challenge in moving to this new technology was to achieve at least equivalent wash fastness and product application performance as the epoxy or acrylic based colour coatings used by other zip manufacturers.  This has been achieved and our factory in Germany has completely switched to water based colour coatings.  During 2012 this will become company-wide practice throughout Coats.

Our team in India has been working with specialist chemical engineers to eliminate selenium from the chemical product which is used to oxidise the teeth of our metal zips.  Selenium is restricted under the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), the EU Directive for toys, and by certain key customers.  Whilst selenium is not detectable in any of our final zip products, it is our intention to remove all traces of potentially harmful substances from our manufacturing processes and so safeguard end consumers and the environment.  The new process, which will also be rolled out in Asia during 2012, will provide ‘best in market’ durability and performance, and will also reduce the impact on the environment.

Where it is not possible to completely eliminate potentially hazardous substances from our supply chain, we will reduce the amounts used in order to comply with all customers’ requirements and legal obligations.  For example, copper is an essential component in some of our metallic zip products.  As well as reducing the amount used to an absolute minimum, Coats has developed a special protective coating which effectively ‘seals in’ the copper, thus preventing any migration of copper from the zip, even after harsh or lengthy post- treatments.  Metallic zip products which are treated with our unique “Protecto” finish comply with the stringent Oeko-tex Standard 100 Class 1 (for babywear) and thus afford protection from copper ingestion.

A long term commitment to carbon reduction

Our focus on improving energy efficiency and reducing our contribution to climate change has helped reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases by 42% since 2000.

Energy is a vital resource for our business.  By investing in new technology, such as low heat dyeing processes, together with a shared commitment to be more efficient in the way we operate, we have reduced our total energy consumption considerably since 2000. 

In 2011, we used over 969 million kWh of energy in manufacturing our products, of which just under half was electricity, a third gas and the remainder coal and oil. In 2000, this figure was close to 1.7 billion kWh. Even over the past year, we have reduced our overall energy consumption by 7% on the previous year on a like-for-like basis (2010: 1,038 million kWh).

As a result our efforts to reduce energy consumption, our emissions of greenhouse gases have reduced as well: from 782 thousand tonnes in 2000 to 457 thousand in 2011 on a like-for-like basis.

In the past year alone, our emissions have reduced by 3% (2010: 473 thousand tonnes).  This  percentage is less than our energy use as we have reduced our direct consumption of fossil fuels (oil and gas particularly), but have continued to use a similar amount of electricity which, across all our global operations, tends to be more carbon intensive as a result of how it is generated.

In terms of the products we manufacture, we generated 6.8 kg CO2e per kg of dyed produced in 2011 compared to 7.0 kg CO2e in the previous year.  This is a 3.5% reduction.

We recognise that our climate is changing, and as a significant energy user we have a role to play in reducing our contribution to it.  We have made good progress and will continue to drive down our energy consumption and reduce emissions from our business.

As part of our commitment to minimise our impact on the environment, we seek to use materials in the most efficient way that we can.

By re-engineering the standard two degree cone – as used for Epic, Astra, and other popular industrial thread brands – Coats India has been able to reduce plastic (polypropylene) usage by over 30%.

The initial challenge faced by our cone manufacturer was the modification of the moulds to produce the reduced weight cone, without affecting its strength or any other performance characteristics.  Coats India has three different types of cone winding machines and this made the initial trials and developments all the more complex.  Extensive trials were conducted using all these winding machines for different thread products, and samples were tested and evaluated by the Marketing team.  Following the successful completion of the trials, the new, lighter cone was introduced in all Coats India’s manufacturing locations over the course of six months.

In 2011 – the first full year of using the lighter cone – Coats India consumed 22 million of them across all of its manufacturing locations, representing a reduction in plastic usage of 110 tonnes.

Water is a key resource for us. We recognise that it is scarce in many parts of the world, including in some of the countries in which we operate.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a membrane-technology filtration method that removes salts and other impurities from solutions, and can produce water that meets the demanding specifications that are required for accurate dyeing. RO is achieved by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the contaminant is retained on the pressurised side of the membrane and the pure water is allowed to pass to the other side.

At our plant in Turkey, effluent used to be directly discharged to the Bursa Organised Industrial District Management (BOID)'s Waste Water Treatment Plant without any treatment. However, in July 2011 we installed an RO system to re-use some of this effluent water instead of it all going to waste. In terms of efficiency, the RO system manages to convert nearly 70% of the effluent into clean water for use in the dyeing process, the rest is discharged to the BOID's Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Coats Turkey is looking forward to a significant reduction in total water consumption with the RO system's first full year of operation in 2012.

Water is a key resource for us. We recognise that it is scarce in many parts of the world, including in some of the countries in which we operate.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a membrane-technology filtration method that removes salts and other impurities from solutions, and can produce water that meets the demanding specifications that are required for accurate dyeing. RO is achieved by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the contaminant is retained on the pressurised side of the membrane and the pure water is allowed to pass to the other side.

At our plant in Turkey, effluent used to be directly discharged to the Bursa Organised Industrial District Management (BOID)'s Waste Water Treatment Plant without any treatment. However, in July 2011 we installed an RO system to re-use some of this effluent water instead of it all going to waste. In terms of efficiency, the RO system manages to convert nearly 70% of the effluent into clean water for use in the dyeing process, the rest is discharged to the BOID's Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Coats Turkey is looking forward to a significant reduction in total water consumption with the RO system's first full year of operation in 2012.

A long term commitment to carbon reduction

Our focus on improving energy efficiency and reducing our contribution to climate change has helped reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases by 42% since 2000.

Energy is a vital resource for our business.  By investing in new technology, such as low heat dyeing processes, together with a shared commitment to be more efficient in the way we operate, we have reduced our total energy consumption considerably since 2000. 

In 2011, we used over 969 million kWh of energy, of which just under half was electricity, a third gas and the remainder coal and oil. In 2000, this figure was 1.7 billion kWh. Even over the past year, we have reduced our overall energy consumption by 7% on the previous year on a like-for-like basis [2010: 1,038 million kWh].

As a result our efforts to reduce energy consumption, our emissions of greenhouse gases have reduced as well: from 782 thousand tonnes in 2000 to 457 in 2011 on a like for like basis.

In the past year alone, our emissions have reduced by 3% (2010: 473 thousand tonnes).  This  percentage is less than our energy use as we have reduced our direct consumption of fossil fuels (oil and gas particularly), but have continued to use a similar amount of electricity which, across all our global operations, tends to be more carbon intensive as a result of how it is generated.

In terms of the products we manufacture, we generated 6.8 kg CO2e per kg of dyed produced in 2011 compared to 7.0 kg CO2e in the previous year.  This is a 3.5% reduction.

We recognise that our climate is changing, and as a significant energy user we have a role to play in reducing our contribution to it.  We have made good progress and will continue to drive down our energy consumption and reduce emissions from our business.

To ensure that we are meeting the expectations of our stakeholders, including our customers and the brands we supply, we have introduced a programme of auditing at our operations in China.  This helps us to make sure that we are adhering to our robust CR standards, as well as offering us opportunities to improve the way we operate. Starting in mid-2011, we introduced a training programme for employees that would help us do this.  The initiative progressed through two phases:

Certified CR Lead Auditor Training Programme

This external training programme (conducted by the Intertek testing agency) is designed to equip attendees with the skill sets, capabilities and up-to-date intelligence on environmental issues, practices and effective performance management.  It provides participants with a systematic and holistic approach to managing social compliance audits, covering the essential key topics, such as audit criteria/standards, typical codes of conduct, auditor professionalism, obtaining objective evidence, overall audit workflow, on-site audit processes, audit tools, writing corrective action plans, writing audit reports, etc.

Coats China’s Shenzhen unit sent participants from different functions (CR, HR, H&S, Procurement) to attend, and after five days comprehensive training, they all passed the training exam and were officially recognised as “CPI Certified CSR Auditors” by the Compliance Practitioners Initiative (CPI) and City & Guilds.

CR Internal Auditor Training Programme

In order to expand the CR Auditor Team within Coats China, the accredited Lead Auditors developed our own CR Internal Auditor Training Programme using the CPI materials, sharing their experience and knowledge by playing the trainer’s role.  A number of individuals from three business units and different departments were selected to participate in the training.  Following the classroom training participants underwent an assessment which they had to pass in order to become qualified Coats CR Internal Auditors.  So far 21 trainees have completed the programme and more training is planned.

As a leading global thread supplier, Coats is committed to maintaining and promoting world class standards of business integrity.  One way that Coats North America supports these beliefs is through collaboration with its plastic support supplier.  Every day, we collect thousands of used plastic supports from our supply chain and internal processing and send them to the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department (SCVRD) for recycling.

The SCVRD centre’s mission is to “enable eligible South Carolinians with disabilities to prepare for, achieve and maintain competitive employment”.  They operate 24 work training centres located throughout the state and contract with many businesses and industries to do outsource work.

They take the supports and – using their equipment and manpower – process them into small plastic chips suitable for injection moulding.  The chips are then sent to our supplier, who produces thread spools of various sizes for reuse.

In this way, we are keeping thousands of kilograms of plastic out of the landfills each year, whilst at the same time helping those in need in our local community. See more about the work the SCVRD does at their website.

Recently, Coats Cadena Peru helped create the Largest Sweater in the World – officially recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records!  With the participation of more than 1,500 volunteer knitters, over 6,000 squares (each measuring 40 cm by 40 cm) were made using Coats Cadena’s acrylic knitting yarn, which was donated by the company. 

These were then sewn together to form a sweater with a chest measurement of over 10 metres, body length of nearly 14 metres, and sleeves each over 6 metres long!  This massive garment was then lifted up on a huge structure in the car park of the Plaza San Miguel mall in Lima.

However, all these efforts were not simply aimed at getting into the record books.  After the raising ceremony, the gigantic sweater was taken to pieces and over 1,500 children’s ponchos were made with volunteers’ support. 

The first donation helped 930 children in the community of Huancavelica, one of the poorest parts of Peru, located in the Andes.  Every year many children die in this area because of the harsh temperatures and lack of shelter from the cold.  The rest of the ponchos were given to children in the “Ticlio Chico” community, just outside Lima.

Helping the Coats Thailand ‘Family’

The recent flood crisis in Thailand has had a devastating effect on many Thai families.  Millions were displaced, agricultural land was swamped and factories flooded.  While our factory was lucky enough to remain unscathed, many of our employees’ homes were flooded, some to depths of up to two metres.  As a result many staff had to relocate their families to alternative accommodation in unaffected areas.  Coats Thailand’s Welfare Committee swiftly implemented the following package:

1. We provided a hardship allowance for 40 employees and families who had to evacuate their homes but were still coming to work on a daily basis.
2. As a preventative measure against rising flood levels, we relocated our finished goods warehouse to another part of Bangkok.  Staff who were forced to move to the new site were given a relocation allowance.
3. Special leave was granted for those who needed extra time to relocate and/or clean up.

This was very well received by all the affected employees and was a real demonstration of positive teamwork within the Coats Thailand family.

The photos show some of Coats employees affected by flooding.

Helping Others

In addition, Coats Thailand set up a 'Flood Relief Volunteer Team' to support the Thai Red Cross Society.  Thai Red Cross relief volunteers produced on average 5,000 Red Cross Relief Kits per day with drinking water and other necessities which were distributed to flood victims in 32 provinces.

We were proud that we did something on behalf of the Company to help flood victims in Thailand and we were very happy to greet and pay respect to HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (Executive Vice President of the Thai Red Cross Society) when she paid a surprise visit to the Thai Red Cross Society while the Coats team was volunteering.

As a leading global thread supplier, Coats is committed to maintaining and promoting world class standards of business integrity.  One way that Coats North America supports these beliefs is through collaboration with its plastic support supplier.  Every day, we collect thousands of used plastic supports from our supply chain and internal processing and send them to the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department (SCVRD) for recycling.

The SCVRD centre’s mission is to “enable eligible South Carolinians with disabilities to prepare for, achieve and maintain competitive employment”.  They operate 24 work training centres located hroughout the state and contract with many businesses and industries to do outsource work.

They take the supports and – using their equipment and manpower – process them into small plastic chips suitable for injection moulding.  The chips are then sent to our supplier, who produces thread spools of various sizes for reuse.

In this way, we are keeping thousands of kilograms of plastic out of the landfills each year, whilst at the same time helping those in need in our local community. See more about the work the SCVRD does at their website.