The Dalesman Group
The Dalesman Group
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Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

Home > CSR

About us and our goals

Looking after Employees

Community Engagement

Customer Care

Protecting the Environment

Our mission:

To be the premier partner in flavour innovation, leading the food industry with sustainable practices, cutting-edge solutions, and exceptional customer service.

Our vision:

To craft bespoke, high-quality seasonings, food ingredients, and functional blends that inspire taste and innovation across the food industry. We are committed to providing expert technical support and ensuring consistency, safety, and traceability throughout our production process to exceed customer expectations.

Our CSR, ethical and environmental policy statement:

We continuously strive to be a leading example of corporate and social responsibility through the adoption of a series of commitments centred around:

  • Our employees
  • Our community
  • Our customers
  • Our environment

Sedex

Gordon Rhodes and Son Ltd are members of Sedex (Company reference: ZC419367275)

Employees

We believe in empowering our people to reach their full potential. Through ongoing development, training, structured appraisals, apprenticeship programs, and succession planning, we invest in their growth and long-term success.

At the forefront of people engagement is our adherence to the ETI base code, supporting improvement in working conditions for all:

  1. Employment is freely chosen
  2. Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected
  3. Working conditions are safe and hygienic
  4. Child labour shall not be used
  5. Living wages are paid
  6. Working hours are not excessive
  7. No discrimination is practised
  8. Regular employment is provided
  9. No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed

We actively support our local communities by partnering with schools, colleges and universities to offer work experience, apprenticeships and internships, helping to nurture the next generation of skilled professionals in manufacturing.

Additionally, The Dalesman Group supports local charities and food banks, primarily through the donation of manufactured products. We also encourage and assist our employees, customers, and supply chain partners in their charitable efforts, strengthening our collective impact on society.

Customer care through quality, support and communication

The Dalesman Group and its manufacturing site, Gordon Rhodes & Son Ltd, is dedicated to providing the best service to our customers by ensuring a continual supply of products of the highest standards, and consistent flavour, while always ensuring our obligations and responsibilities with regard to food safety, quality, legality, and authenticity are met.

Quality is the foundation of our company ethos, embedded across the business through our commitment to continuously improve the site’s food safety and quality culture. This is driven via the implementation and review of our Food Safety and Quality Management system which is aligned with BRCGS requirements and our customers’ needs.

As members of the Seasoning and Spice Association, we stay abreast of industry legislation, news, and best practice while horizon scanning for any emerging issues.

To ensure that our finished products are of the highest quality and consistency, we work closely with our suppliers and buy our ingredients from reputable supply chains, with robust technical specifications, GFSI programs and where applicable, sustainability assurances.

Equipment is maintained to a high standard by our engineering department, while our IT employees manage our purpose-built computer software which ensures processing and recipes are secure, consistent; traceability is available; and specific customer requirements are documented.

The quality department is responsible for ensuring compliance with the BRCGS, while checking every batch of product conforms to agreed specifications using our in-house laboratory. The team is available for SAQs, product certificates and technical support.

Our sales team are always on hand to provide a friendly and professional interface with our business to ensure that customers receive the right product for them from our wide array of options while our development team is at the forefront of designing innovative new products and helping our customers create their own bespoke flavours in our state-of-the-art kitchen.

We also communicate with our customers through regular update emails, our group’s websites (www.thedalesmangroup.co.uk, www.dalesmandirect.com and www.gordonrhodes.co.uk), as well as our social media channels, where we are able to listen and respond to customer feedback.

We welcome customers visits to our manufacturing site, where customers can meet our professional and well-trained team and see the facilities described above.

Protecting the environment though management of packaging materials, energy, waste and recycling

At The Dalesman Group, we have a commitment to reducing the environmental impact that our business activities may have.

Our manufacturing, technical and warehousing site in Bradford has been awarded a Grade A SBEM score and includes:

  • Solar panels to provide much of our energy needs. Any surplus energy is exported back to the national grid.
  • A Building Management System which controls plant items, monitors operational temperatures and records energy and water usage, allowing us to optimise energy usage.
  • A heat recovery ventilation system which utilises heat from extracted air to heat up the incoming air supply via heat exchangers.
  • Sensor taps to minimise water usage throughout the building
  • LED light fittings which include daylight dimming functionality

Energy efficient equipment is always specified, for example our lift uses weight sensing technology to minimise energy usage.

Electric vehicle charging points are installed at our Bradford and Newcastle sites and are available to all employees. We are continuing to expand our fleet of electric and hybrid vehicles (currently 60% of our fleet) which now includes fully electric vehicles and our first range-extended electric delivery vehicle. All commercial deliveries are tracked and optimised including, where possible, back hauling.

Recycling arrangements are in place for all operations, including recycling points in office and canteen areas. Waste is segregated into mixed paper / plastic and food.

Waste levels are tracked and, where appropriate, action plans put in place to make improvements.
We work hard to minimise the amount of packaging used and specify packaging that is both recycled and recyclable whenever possible. Recent strategic packaging reduction projects have involved moving some products from plastic buckets to sacks.

The Dalesman Group are committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions and are working with CarbonQuota to quantify our current carbon footprint and identify priority actions to achieve our goal.