Modern Slavery Act 2015
Anti- slavery and human trafficking statement for financial year 2024
Smyths Toys is one of the UK’s leading specialist retailers of toys, software and nursery products. In the UK, we operate over 125 retail stores as well as through our online website. The products sold by Smyths Toys are sourced from a wide range of UK, European and international suppliers.
The Group is committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any of our supply chains or in any part of our business. As such, we take great care in selecting our business partners. We aim to buy products from suppliers and factories which can demonstrate an awareness of, and comply with, appropriate social and ethical standards and who can demonstrate compliance with relevant local legislation. We undertake all reasonable and practical steps to ensure that our expected standards are being implemented throughout the businesses of our suppliers. These include requiring signed assurances around anti-slavery compliance at supplier on-boarding stage. We also require our suppliers to submit to third- party ethical audits to confirm minimum factory standards with regard to health and safety, wages, working hours, working conditions and labour laws. During this financial year, we reviewed our supplier groupings and risk analysis to ensure that we are prioritising the most high-risk areas based on international guidelines.
Our standard contractual documents include terms requiring suppliers to implement procedures to ensure that there is no slavery present in their business and to notify us on becoming aware of any actual or suspected slavery or human trafficking within their own supply chains. These contractual documents were reviewed and updated during the year ended 30 December 2024. The Group also introduced a new supplier code of conduct which sets out that the Group adopts a zero-tolerance approach to any form of slavery in the Group’s supply chain. Within the financial year ending 30 December 2024, the Group continued to take additional steps towards the prevention of modern slavery in our supply chains. These steps included bolstering the team responsible for the prevention of modern slavery in our supply chains. Enhancements have also been made to the Group custom IT system in terms of traceability, both in terms of vendor and factory traceability. In recognition of the fact that an increased level of due diligence is required in certain jurisdictions, particular focus has been placed on a number of high-risk manufacturing locations along with, pre-shipping inspections. This is in addition to ongoing supplier compliance checks (including social audits) for both new and existing suppliers.
We approach the integrity of our supply chain as a process of continuous assessment. All buying and support teams work persistently to identify any areas where we may be vulnerable to the risk of modern slavery and take action to strengthen our processes where appropriate. In particular, the Group has a clear whistleblowing policy which encourages staff to report concerns including any related to modern slavery and human trafficking. Annual training is carried out with the buying teams to ensure that their knowledge and awareness is up-to-date with current legislation and guidance.
This statement is made on behalf of Smyths Toys HQ UC, Smyths Toys UK Limited and Smyths Toys NI Limited pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 30 December 2024.
Anthony Smyth, Managing Director
30 June 2025
