Our incubator and accelerator programmes build partnerships with people who bring innovative solutions tolife, to help future-proof our organization.


SUSTAINABILITY PARTNERS
partners
Building long term partnerships for common goals.
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At Chalhoub Group, we are committed to working with our suppliers and partners to ensure we all apply the highest ethical, responsible and transparent business practices.
OUR PARTNERS in numbers
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building ethical & responsible relationships with our PARTNERS & SUPPLIERS
We build ethical and responsible relationships ensuring our suppliers and partners abide by all the laws, regulations and codes we hold ourselves to. We engage with our suppliers through our Supplier Engagement Programme to ensure they align to our standards for ethics and legal compliance. In 2022 we launched our Third-Party Partner Code, which we developed according to five frameworks for principles of ethical business. We also partner with NGOs and government entities to accelerate the process of sustainable development through promoting sustainability agendas. In 2022, we signed a Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with Dubai College of Tourism and Dar Al-Hekma University to support national talent from across our regions into quality employment. Additionally, we celebrated local creative talent at our Fashion Revival event where fashion students presented their designs to our panel of experts. These responsible relationships are driving local sustainable development and the attainment of international sustainability agendas.
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Supplier Engagement Awareness Sessions
In 2022, we held two supplier engagement awareness sessions for UAE and KSA suppliers. In all, 64 suppliers joined the sessions. These sessions enabled us to communicate our commitment to responsible business, advise and encourage suppliers to align to business ethics and integrity principles, enhance understanding of our Scorecard, and promote open dialogue with our suppliers and partners.
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partnering for innovative & diverse BUSINESS GROWTH
Business growth is vital for our Group and its communities to thrive, hence we have been focusing our procurement efforts on favoring local and regional suppliers. It not only fosters economic development within the region but also promotes job creation, strengthens local businesses, and enhances the overall self-sufficiency and resilience of the economy.
Responding to consumers’ increasing and rapidly evolving demands for sustainable products is risky for startups, therefore, we co-create with them in our Startup Studio. This provides a supportive environment for entrepreneurs to bring disruptive, hyper-growth and sustainable ventures to market. Furthermore, it shields startups from risk whilst generating perpetual value for our Group. It is also vital for our financial sustainability that we keep up on the latest technologies and trends. Innovation and retaining the entrepreneurial spirit of our founders have always been part of our core values. The steps we’ve taken in 2022 into the Metaverse and Web3 are ensuring we remain true to our founder’s principles in the digital age. Our partnerships are driving innovations that is allowing us to respond to the consumer demand for sustainable products whilst securing our long-term business growth.
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Nurturing the innovative talent in the region to support our partnerships
In 2022, L’Occitane asked us to provide access to our methodologies and frameworks for sustainable innovation, by powering their first Retail Tech Accelerator Programme. This joint venture gave a unique opportunity for selected startups to showcase their products to the French luxury brand for implementing their cutting-edge retail-tech solutions in the Middle East. We supported them through the development of multiple proof-of-concepts with the goal of signing commercial agreements with L’Occitane Middle East.
We challenged the startups to deploy their solutions to address the pain points of changing consumer values, demands and behaviours, with a focus on catering to the sustainability-savvy Gen-Z market.
We supported four selected startups to develop their proof-of-concept over a four- month period at The Greenhouse in Dubai Design District. The startups were given access to mentorship from The Greenhouse team and senior decision-makers at L’Occitane MENA to accelerate their journey, and secured USD 50,000 each in funding. The partnership strengthened our relationship with L’Occitane whose sustainability values closely align to ours; whilst demonstrating to a multi-national organization that our region holds a wealth of talent that can provide innovative solutions to contemporary business and sustainability challenges.
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Leading the way in our region’s WELLNESS INDUSTRY
The Middle East’s wellness market is worth an estimated $107.7 billion; therefore, it is vital for our economic sustainability to lead it. We are forging partnerships with, and investing in, leading wellness brands such as Detox Market and La Bouche to keep at the forefront of wellness. Our partnerships are enabling us to invigorate and shape the market. We are redefining wellness products to have a positive impact through the development of production methods and packaging solutions that do not pollute the environment. Additionally, in 2022, female entrepreneurs from our Greenhouse’s Beauty Lab shared their wellness philosophy with a delegation from the UK Trade Mission. We also held our Beauty Unbound Event where FACES joined a panel discussion on our commitment to expanding the clean beauty market. These efforts are securing our leadership in the wellness market whilst stimulating the development of healthy and sustainable products.
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Women in Uae Leading the Beauty and Wellness Market
We are proud that the female entrepreneurs in the UAE are leading our region’s multi- billion-dollar beauty and wellness markets. In 2022, The Greenhouse welcomed a delegation of British beauty brands. The brands were supported by the UK Trade Mission, to hear about our Group, our beauty curation process, insights on the GCC beauty market from Alia Arafat and our Beauty Lab Programme. Three female entrepreneurs took them through their journey, ALAM Health & Beauty, NOOD New York and Palma de Salus.
The delegation then visited FACES stores in Mall of the Emirates, in Dubai, to learn more about the brands’ curation and discover the Beauty Nation section offering a range of indie skin care, hair care, body care and wellness products. It gave us great satisfaction to have shared our beauty philosophy that is driven by talented women with major players outside of our region.
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“We engage with our suppliers, brands and industry experts to enhance the sustainability performance of our business practices.”
Targets | Scope | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Target Year | % Achieved |
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Increase Sustainability Supplier Scorecard response rate to 50% | Group-wide | 27% | 25% | 24% | 2025 | 48% |
15% of low performing suppliers engaged through group and individual sessions *Targets to be updated to 30% |
Group-wide | 0% | 8% | 23% | 2023 | 153% |
Conduct at least 1 external assessment on our Human Rights Programme | Group-wide | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2023 | - |
Launch 100 innovative start ups | Group-wide | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2032 | 9% |
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Supporting LOCAL business growth
Supporting the local economy is central to our procurement strategy, and we always look to buy local wherever possible. We are also piloting our Supply Chain Finance Facility (SCF) that ensures the settling of the invoices of local suppliers ahead of their due dates, to help them improve their cash flow and credit ratings. -