Price Competition The Group operates in a highly competitive market, commoditisation of mail continues with constant pressure on margins. The Group is focusing on excellent account management and consistent quality of service with initiatives designed to improve competencies surrounding customer services, operational improvement, sales support and training. Whistl provides high levels of customer service at prices that o¦er customers best value. It also seeks to maintain strong relationships with major customers and develop new services. Business continuity The Group has detailed business continuity plans in place for all sites to ensure an immediate and appropriate response to a business continuity issue or disaster scenario. Whistleblowing The Group has in place a Whistleblowing Policy, which all employees and other defined individuals are required to adhere to and is open to suppliers and customers to use if they wish to report any concerns. The Whistleblowing Policy sets out the ethical standards expected of all persons the policy legally applies to and includes the procedure for raising concerns in strict confidence. Employees are encouraged to raise their genuine concerns regarding any malpractice within the Group without fear of harassment or victimisation. Any instances of employee disclosures concerning malpractice are reported to the Executive Board. There were no instances of malpractice reported to the committee during the year. Anti-bribery and corruption The Group operates an anti-bribery and corruption policy which was put in place in response to UK Bribery Act 2010. This policy sets out the responsibilities of employees of the Group in observing and maintaining the Group’s position on bribery and corruption, which is that Whistl will uphold all laws relevant to countering bribery and corruption in all the jurisdictions in which it operates. All employees are required to undertake a Bribery Corruption Awareness training programme as part of their induction process upon joining the Group. We publish our anti-bribery procedure on our intranet and each member of sta¦ has to complete an annual assessment through the company’s myAcademy online training portal. We are committed to actively investigating any reports of a breach in policy. No breaches were reported this year. Modern Slavery Act compliance We conform to the requirements around Modern Day Slavery legislation to ensure we only use resource that can legally work within the organisation and ensure no workforce is engaged that in any way has links to people tra¤cking activity. We actively work to demonstrate appropriate due diligence of our supply chain and we maintain a Modern Slavery Policy and Statement as required by the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
PRICE RISK Pricing of Royal Mail services is determined by Royal Mail but is monitored by the Regulator, Ofcom.
CREDIT RISK The Group has significant credit risk particularly given that a material amount of turnover is the pass through to customers of Royal Mail costs, to whom payment is required on strict terms. There are, however, strong credit controls in place and in addition, the Group utilises credit insurance.
TREASURY MANAGEMENT In order to maintain liquidity and to ensure that su¤cient funds are available for ongoing operations and future developments, all risk exposures including funding, foreign currency, interest rate exposures and cash management are regularly monitored by the Board of Management. The prime focus being performance and strategic issues as well as the mitigation and management of these risks to an acceptable level. The Group expects to meet its financial obligations through operating cash flows. In the event that the operating cash flows would not cover all the financial obligations, the Group has substantial, fully committed unused credit facilities available.
Risk Management | Whistl Annual Report 2017
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