We are committed to fostering a culture of continuous learning, inclusion and opportunity, ensuring that all employees are empowered to grow, adapt and lead in a complex and evolving global landscape.

Our people are a critical resource. They are central to our success and making a positive impact on the world. Therefore, they must be empowered, respected, valued and kept safe and healthy. We provide training opportunities to ensure that our people grow, advance their careers, access good employment and ultimately can meet their full potential; we strive to create a healthy, happy and safe environment; we promote fair and transparent pay, benefits and rewards, whilst promoting equity, diversity and inclusion which is at the heart of our business.

As one of the largest private sector employers in SA, where inequality and unemployment, particularly among youth, are widespread, we are intentional in our interventions for our people, their multiple dependants, and the broader community. In our international territories of operations, our businesses also play a vital role in the communities and places where we live and work. Through local partnerships, social value initiatives, and volunteering, we actively contribute to economic and social wellbeing. We seek to drive lasting positive change by supporting education, employment and community resilience.

Putting people at the heart of our business

The social element of sustainability is of particular importance to Bidvest, touching multiple sectors and communities, and relevant to its operations that promote and offer out-of-home hygiene and integrated facilities management services, in order to support safe and healthy occupational environments.

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We are committed to advancing environmental sustainability, ethical conduct, and purpose-driven innovation across our operations and value chain. Through responsible decision-making and transparent governance, we strive to create enduring value for society and the planet

In line with SDGs aimed at affordable and clean energy, climate action and responsible consumption, the Group is focused on energy and water efficiency, responsible waste management, and innovative solutions to aid customer sustainability.

The Group is proud to be a deep-rooted corporate citizen in South Africa, Namibia, the UK, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Singapore and Canada, as it is highly engaged in community and human capital development activities and supporting local businesses. This aligns with SDGs aimed at reducing inequality and socio-economic participation.

Bidvest is a signatory to and participant in the United Nation’s Global Compact. Bidvest’s Group CEO serves on the board of the UN Global Compact Network SA and is the chair. The Bidvest Corporate Affairs executive chairs the member-led gender equality sub-committee of the UNGCSA and nominated senior executives participate in the UN’s Gender Diversity as well as Business and Human Rights Accelerator programmes.

Bidvest reports on Scope 1 and 2 emissions as defined by the GHG Protocol and track these emissions against reduction targets. The Group’s environmental footprint is concentrated in its Freight operations, BidAir Cargo, laundries and the businesses with extensive operational networks, which collectively represent the vast majority of Group emissions and water usage. We focus on lowering our consumption of fossil-fuel generated energy and water, increasing the proportion of renewable energy we use, and improving energy and water efficiency in our operations.

We recognise the importance of also contributing to Scope 3 emission reductions. Given the diversity and disparity of Group operations, the identification of applicable inventories and gathering of data on an aggregated level is not feasible at this stage. Select businesses within the Group have embarked on this journey. As part of our Sustainability Framework 2035, we have, however, included a target to redesign, re-engineer, re-source, and recycle products or services making up 10% of procurement spend. We view this as a practical commitment to reduce Scope 3 emissions.

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We will uphold the highest standards of ethical governance and performance. Through accountable leadership and proactive risk management, we aim to earn trust and deliver long-term value responsibly

Strong corporate governance is the foundation of ethical, transparent and accountable business practices. It ensures that decision-making processes prioritise the interests of shareholders, employees, customers, and the broader community. At Bidvest governance is not just compliance, it is a strategic enabler of trust, resilience, and long-term value creation.

Doing the right thing even when no one is looking

Bidvest has a deeply entrenched functional governance structure that places significant reliance on the ethical behaviour of all employees. This places a very high hurdle of responsibility and accountability on everyone.

Rather than having many policies and manuals, we have a Bidvest Code of Ethics that sets out our behaviour. When someone missteps, decisive action is taken and communicated back into the business. An authority matrix forms the backbone of day-to-day governance. Formal reporting structures complement business-level processes that result in dynamic and iterative risk assessments and mitigation actions as well as operational agility. Relevant management and executive committees have been structured into each of the six divisions and report into divisional boards. Matters from these divisional board meetings are escalated further to the Exco, which comprises Group directors and functional executives (covering strategy, finance, transformation, investor relations, ESG, business development) as well as the six divisional CEOs. The three executive directors in turn report into the main Group Board of directors, directly or through the established committees.

ALICE^TM, the Group’s autonomous, intelligent capability robot, has become embedded in the operations of each of the environments across the Group as our governance mindset has shifted from annual audit, risk and compliance reviews to continuous monitoring of their control environments.

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