Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement | 2022

We, Crestchic Limited, are committed to improving our practices to combat slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chain. We have prepared this statement pursuant to section 54(1)  of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Organisation structure
Crestchic Limited (formerly known as Crestchic PLC) is a private limited company. It is the parent company of the Crestchic group which operates through several subsidiaries worldwide in the UK, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Dubai, Singapore and China. The group headquarters are in Burton on Trent in England. The Crestchic group has close to 200 employees worldwide.

In November 2022, we completed the final stage of the divestment of the Tasman Oil Tools side of our business. For the financial year which ended on 31 December 2022, our group annual turnover was £42.8m excluding the Tasman revenue. The focus is now on driving the Crestchic business.

Our business
We design, manufacture, sell, hire and service Loadbanks and Transformers to domestic and international customers all around the world. Our business is in the electrical engineering sector. Our products are used to assure reliability for generators and distributors of power for industries critically dependent on uninterrupted power to ensure business continuity in the event of a failure of their primary power supply. We also commission power generation in remote sites where mining and drilling is used to extract natural resources, such as oil and gas.

The customers who we supply operate in many industries. We categorise our customers into five main sectors: marine, extraction, energy transition (moving from coal and oil-based energy towards cleaner and renewable energy), data centres and critical infrastructure (such as healthcare, telecommunications, and transport).

Our business divisions in each geographical area are split into i) manufacturing and sales and ii) rental.

Our supply chains
Our main supply chain relates to the products that we manufacture, sell, hire and service. This includes approximately 400 suppliers, around 10 of which are critical to our business as they provide us with the key components required to build our equipment. These components consist of enclosures, elements, reactors, and fans.

Most of our suppliers are based in the UK. However, we also purchase goods from suppliers in Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, and China.

Our policies on slavery and human trafficking
We have implemented an Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy (‘Modern Slavery Policy’) that underpins our commitment to reduce the risk of modern slavery or human trafficking arising in our supply chains or in any part of our business. Our Modern Slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains. We periodically review and update our policies.

Due diligence processes for slavery and human trafficking
We do not believe that modern slavery presents a high risk within our business – this is because we are not active in the highest risk industries (such as those dealing with consumer items and agricultural commodities), and the majority of our suppliers are based in the UK, which is a low-risk country for modern slavery. However, we cannot rule out the risk entirely. We believe that the main modern slavery risk in our supply chain relates to when we (or our immediate suppliers) purchase components which have been manufactured in countries where there is a higher risk of forced or child labour, judged by reference to the Global Slavery Index, such as China.

Whilst we have a good understanding and assessment of the potential risks in our direct supply chain, we acknowledge that there is more we can do to reduce risks of modern slavery and human trafficking further down our supply chain. We are currently assessing how we can implement a proportionate approach to managing this risk through our supply chain.

Our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking
We are on the start of our journey in taking steps to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not present in our business or supply chains and each year we will build on this.

Previous steps
The steps we have already taken to combat slavery and human trafficking in our own business and supply chain include:
• Ensuring all our employees have the right to work (by checking right to work documents, visas and passports);
• We only use reputable employment agencies to source labour;
• We insist that employment agencies we use for both temporary and permanent workers (i) comply with all applicable laws including modern slavery legislation, which includes requiring our employment agencies to implement their own policies and controls to manage modern slavery and human trafficking risks in their business and supply chain; and (ii) carry out appropriate checks on all workers;
• We do not employ individuals that would be considered ‘child workers’;
• We have implemented a Modern Slavery Policy;
• We have introduced staff training on modern slavery risks; and
• We have displayed worker exploitation posters on our employee noticeboards to raise awareness of this potential risk.

Further steps
Due to an acquisition process that began in FY22 and completed in FY23, which resulted in a change of ownership, we decided to hold off taking the steps below in FY22. However, during 2023 we will implement the following additional controls to address modern slavery and human trafficking risks in our business and supply chain:
i. Implement a Global Supplier Code of Conduct;
ii. Amend our standard customer and supplier terms and conditions to include modern slavery obligations;
iii. Amend our supplier audit questionnaire to enable us to identify potential exposure to modern slavery risks in our supply chains and to work with our suppliers to strengthen their own controls to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking risks arising in their supply chain; and
iv. Implement an independent speaking up process to enable our employees and suppliers to report any concerns anonymously.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This statement constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 December 2022 and details the approach adopted by Crestchic Limited and all subsidiaries of Crestchic Limited including Crestchic (UK) Limited.

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 29 June 2023.

Iwan Phillips – Director