Controlling the supply chain: the strategic buyers

In 2020, the purchasing teams launched a five-year programme to develop self-assessment among Decathlon's partner suppliers. . By strengthening the skills of its teams and deploying digital monitoring and self-assessment tools, Decathlon is raising its industrial excellence standards with regards to its partners on environmental and labour relations issues, along with those to quality control, supply and industrialisation.
Decathlon set itself the target of having 100% of its supplier partners become self-sufficient at conducting all their assessments (with a B-rated audit result) by 2025, to ensure continuous improvement in their performance.
This programme is today continuously improving, having made progress in 2021 despite the challenges of steering it through the health crisis. In December 2021, for example, four supplier sites already achieved more than 80% of the technical requirements, preparing to acquire their Social Responsibility in Production (SRP) self-assessment certificate
at the beginning of 2022..

The sixth edition of Decathlon's X World Partner Forum was organised over two days in a hybrid format due to the continuing health crisis in 2021. The event brought together 60 partners from 14 countries, the Decathlon teams and future company partners. More than 1,000 people attended the presentations made by Decathlon's managers and the introduction of the company's new industrial goals; Several short films from within partner sites were also shown.

This year, World Partner Forum participants were able to connect directly to the Reveal Innovation (an annual event to showcase Decathlon's new innovations), allowing partners to become familiar with Decathlon's innovation culture.
Alongside this major annual event, several local events were organised around the world (China, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.). During these gatherings, local actors can discuss their difficulties in similar contexts and share their best practices.

"In 2021, it was important for Decathlon to present its industrial transformation project to its partners at the World Partner Forum event. It is, in actual fact, with them that we will become a new "Industrial Giant".

Our partners are fully-fledged members of the team. We share with them the same ambitions along with strong values. Many of them have already started a transformation process, and we put the spotlight on them during our event through videos illustrating best practices; they are showing the way to the rest of our preferred suppliers. We felt there was a real sense of enthusiasm during the World Partner Forum 2021, raising awareness of innovation and sustainability issues even further. Our partners are ready to commit with us to achieve our new industrial ambition."