At the C&F Group our Corporate Social Responsibility charter is four fold – community based, employee focused, environment based and marketplace aware.

At the C&F Group we nurture a direct interaction between the company and the communities where we have facilities.  The work we do generates economic and social vibrancy in each locality. The C&F Group is regarded as an integral part of the communities we operate in; we have built on this goodwill by using our grassroots knowledge to support community-focused initiatives. We operate a number of programmes which support local educational establishments through to sponsoring social and sporting initiatives.

When deciding on community-based initiatives we choose projects which reflect the companys philosophy, fulfils a need within the community and matches the available resources of the group.

Employees provide the know-how, productivity, customer service and innovativeness necessary for the C&F Group to grow our business. Therefore, the continued success of the C&F Group is reliant on the commitment of our staff. At the C&F Group we have put in place policies that promote the retention and development of our staff and nurture workplace environments that will attract and retain recruits of the highest calibre. As a testiment to this everyone on the management team at the C&F Group have come up through the ranks by starting on the shopfloor, this appraoch could be regarded as old fahioned but it has proven to be a successful one for the C&F Group. Our workplace CSR policy touches on many different areas of our HR policy such as health and safety, the work-life balance of our employees, staff diversity and cultural awareness.

We have fostered a healthy balance between the work and non-work aspects of employees lives. This is essential in order to avoid burn out of our staff and for retaining a committed, motivated and innovative workplace environment. The workplace at the C&F Group is an intercultural workplace which takes account of the different ethnic and social backgrounds of our staff and we encourage an inclusive working environment that is supportive of diversity.

At our facility in China the dormitories have been described as the best ever seen in China. In China this is vital – there is a growing labour shortage in southern China and workers vote with their feet if they feel conditions are not good enough.  Due to a natural disaster in the Philippines our employees lost their homes and through an initiative within the group we helped with the rebuild.

Public concern regarding the impact of commercial activities on the environment has increased significantly in recent years. At the  C&F Group we are continously striving to implement initiatives which enable sustainable development. To this end the C&F Group's environment based CSR projects go beyond the legislative obligations and promote greener economic growth. The results of these projects are quantifiable and are measured as part of a pursuit for continuous improvement. Within the C&F Group we have deployed a software which is being used to measure and reduce the levels of engergy being used within the production process. Coupled with this the C&F Group have engaged a consultancy group whose brief is to measure, manage and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the manufactuing activities at each facility. This project will enable the C&F Group to benchmark our carbon footprint and set reduction targets. At the C&F Group we are committed to eliminating waste by using, where possible, recyclable and biodegradable products. Our teams are committed to the WEEE and RoHS EU Directives and we actively work with our customers to ensure that their products comply with these directives.

Within the C&F Group our marketplace CSR commitment is twofold;  our suppliers and our customers. At the C&F Group we aim to ensure that our suppliers are providing adequate pay and working conditions to their employees, have effective environmental-protection policies in place and conduct their business activities in a transparent manner that is inline with good corporate behaviour. Domestic and international blue chip companies make up the C&F Group's customer  base.  Our customers have comprehensive CSR charters in place. Finally, in this context the C&F Group implements initiatives such as  customer service programmes which effectively monitor complaints and aim to provide continuous improvement within our design and production facilities .

John Flaherty
MD C&F Group