Modern Slavery Statement

Our Business

McBride is the leading European manufacturer and supplier of contract manufactured and private label products for the domestic, household and professional cleaning/hygiene markets.

McBride was established in 1927. From its historic UK base, the Group has grown both organically and by acquisition, expanding its range of products and its manufacturing base into key continental European markets and Asia Pacific. The Company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.

McBride has c. 3,6642¹ employees and operates in 14 countries. In its financial year 2024/2025, the Group had a global annual turnover of £926.5m. You can read more about our business in our annual report at www.mcbride.co.uk.

¹Includes employees, third-party contractors, consultants and agency workers.  Figure given as at 30 June 2025 (see page 2 of the Company’s 2025 Annual Report and Accounts).

Our supply chains

We are one of the largest European buyers for several of the raw and packaging materials that we source, including surfactants, salts, polymers, enzymes, high density polyethylene, triggers and paper packaging. We also buy a broad range of indirect goods and services across our business.

Our Group purchasing team, which covers all subsidiaries, aims to be best-in-class and buys centrally out of two major locations (Belgium and the UK), supported with offices in Germany, Poland and Hong Kong.

We are open to new ideas, concepts and learning how we can do things better. We regard suppliers as partners in our drive for quality, innovation, efficiency, sustainability and safety.

Our suppliers help us develop new products, achieve efficiency, and serve our customers better. In turn, we aim to work on a long-term basis with our suppliers to help them develop their businesses as well as our own.

We seek to establish mutually beneficial relationships with all our suppliers and encourage them to match our high standards in respect of quality, product safety, working and trading practices, health and safety, environmental protection and human rights.

Our policies

We take the issue of human rights seriously and will continue our efforts to strengthen our policies and management systems in this area. Our employee policies are set locally to comply with local law within the overall Group framework and we monitor the employment practices of our supply chain.

Code of Ethics and Business Conduct

In March 2025, we published our new Code of Ethics and Business Conduct (the “Ethics Code”), which replaced our Business Ethics Policy.  The Ethics Code, which can be found on our website, is a guide for our employees to promote the right behaviours and to help them make the right decisions.

The Ethics Code acts as an overarching document and introduces employees to key ethical topics and policies, which underpin the Ethics Code.  We believe the Ethics Code builds on the Business Ethics Policy, enhances our broader policy framework and is more engaging for our workforce and others that we expect to comply with it.

The Ethics Code will be updated and reviewed by the Board annually. It is promoted to all employees through internal communication channels and is highlighted to suppliers.

Supplier Code of Conduct

We refreshed our Supplier Code of Conduct (the “Supplier Code”) in early 2025.  The Supplier Code sets out the standards of behaviour we expect from all of our suppliers and is provided to all new suppliers on commencement of our business relationship. As a minimum standard, we require every supplier to ensure that our Ethics Code, our Supplier Code and our corporate policies are complied with, coupled with adherence to national and other applicable laws.  To reinforce this, we are now requesting suppliers to sign to confirm that they have read, understood and will comply with the Ethics Code, the Supplier Code and the corporate policies that are referenced in those documents.

As a result of the revision of the Supplier Code earlier in the year, the Supplier Code now contains a greater emphasis on sustainability.  As part of this, we are requesting that suppliers share their scorecards from the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (“SEDEX”) platform with us.

The Supplier Code is published on our website. Any breach of our Ethics Code, the Supplier Code or any of our other corporate policies may result in the termination of a business relationship with a supplier.

Whistleblowing Policy

Our Whistleblowing Policy is intended to act as a deterrent to fraud or corruption or other serious malpractice; it is also intended to protect the Group’s business and reputation.

We recognise that employees will usually be the first to know when someone inside or connected with an organisation is doing something illegal, dishonest, dangerous or unethical. This may relate to the actions of third parties, such as customers or suppliers, or McBride, itself. We do not believe that it is in anyone’s interests for employees with knowledge of wrongdoing to remain silent. We, therefore, welcome the opportunity to address, at the earliest opportunity, any potential for something to go badly wrong in the business and we actively promote openness within the business so that we are better able to deter wrongdoing and pick up potential problems early.

In addition to local reporting channels, McBride has an externally facilitated, confidential whistleblowing reporting line to which concerns can be reported (on an anonymous basis, if preferred).

Our Whistleblowing Policy is also published on our website.

Governance

The Board is responsible for monitoring our slavery and human trafficking risks and mitigation measures.

The Board and its Committees review our approach and policies in this important area and address specific issues if they arise. Day-to-day responsibility sits with the Chief Executive Officer. A Sustainability Committee, chaired by the CEO, provides oversight in relation to environmental issues.  Oversight in relation to social and governance issues is provided by the Group’s Executive Committee.

In 2025, the Group’s Internal Audit function carried out a review of key company policies around ethical practices with the Group’s supply chain.  Certain recommendations were made as a result of this review to further build upon and enhance the Group’s policies, their implementation, the monitoring of adherence and employee training in this area.  These measures were also intended to ensure the Group is appropriately positioned in this area looking to the future.

Supplier adherence to our ethical standards

Slavery and human trafficking are unacceptable. We will take appropriate action if we become aware that any companies or individuals that we work with are infringing the law or endangering our reputation.

We have an Anti-Slavery Policy.  In addition, the Supplier Code, which suppliers are asked to confirm that they have read, understood and comply with, references anti-slavery as a topic under the section entitled Human Rights.

We employ purchasing procedures that, where possible, select suppliers on the basis of specification, quality, service and economic factors and favour those who operate in an ethical and socially responsible manner.

Our due diligence process for slavery and human trafficking

McBride takes the following steps to address modern slavery risks in the supply chain:

1.Third party audits

We have clear and robust policies that all suppliers must comply with as a condition of doing business.

2. Site Audits

We are a member of SEDEX and the majority of our manufacturing sites are SEDEX registered, have completed a self-assessment questionnaire and have regular ethical audits. Across our Asia sites we visit our key suppliers at least two to three times per year and our teams are in daily contact with their representatives. We also conduct pre-shipment checks to ensure that the quality of the supplies is in line with our required standards.

3. Site visits

Our sourcing staff across our Asia sites perform a site visit of each new supplier.  This is to conduct an audit of their premises, general quality, ethical standards, and check their ownership and financial credentials before we commence any business.

4. Supplier Diligence

McBride formerly used a supplier due diligence questionnaire to provide us with assurance that our suppliers were operating in a way that met our high ethical standards.  As part of our evolving approach in this area, in 2025, McBride moved to a multi-layered approach around supplier diligence.  This resulted in the implementation across the Group of: (i) an internally driven questionnaire focusing on specific quality related aspects; and (ii) the SEDEX supplier assessment tool.  We believe that this will better serve the Group’s due diligence requirements going forward.

Training

It is a responsibility of all managers to ensure that McBride policies are properly communicated, understood and applied. Managers, the Legal Team and/or the HR Team (as appropriate) are also responsible for undertaking full investigations into suspected breaches of McBride policies, rules and guidelines. This may involve disciplinary action where necessary and appropriate.

Employees are encouraged to advise their managers as soon as possible where they either suspect or believe there has been a breach of the Group’s social and ethical standards. Any such communication will be handled confidentially and may be registered anonymously if the employee so desires.

McBride expects all employees to read, understand and comply with the Ethical Code and all Group policies that are relevant to their role.

McBride rolled out online ethics compliance training to all office-based employees in the financial year 2023/2024.  This exercise was repeated in 2024/2025 with the training covering anti-bribery and corruption, conflicts of interest, data privacy and whistleblowing.  The training sought to ensure that those employees fully understand their obligations under our Group policies in those important areas.  We intend to carry out further ethics compliance training in the financial year 2025/2026, with new course content planned to keep the training fresh.

Next steps

Geopolitical events, including the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, have resulted in displacement and migration of workers. We are aware of the consequential risk of exploitation within Europe as a result of the continuing conflicts and will continue to monitor this potential labour risk within our supply chain.

We have started our journey toward compliance with the forthcoming EU Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). We are building internal cross-functional alignment and understanding of CS3D requirements and what this means for McBride and its supply chains. We aim to achieve clarity on the high-level ESG risks and impacts that are the most significant in our supply chain and to carry out targeted supplier risk assessment and engagement. In relation to potential social and environmental issues known to affect specific raw material supply chains, we will conduct a deeper-dive risk assessment and due diligence. The results of our risk assessments and supplier screening will be integrated into our existing supplier management systems and processes.

As stated above, in the course of the financial year 2024/2025, we introduced the Ethics Code and revised the Supplier Code.  We will continue to embed these Codes in 2025/2026.  We will also continue with our ethics compliance training programme in the year ahead.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Act and constitutes the Group’s Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement for the financial year ending 30 June 2025.  This statement was approved by the Board of McBride plc on 18 December 2025.

Signed

Chris Smith, Chief Executive Officer

McBride plc

Date: 27 December 2024