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Best Fortune Myanmar (for Clique and Craft brands)

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NWG Response:

NWG became aware of allegations of labor rights issue at Best Fortune Myanmar in October 2023. In terms of Myanmar Best Fortune, they are a sister factory to "KSeng (Myanmar) Apparel" which is the contracted Business Partner to NWG (both units belong to the same Group/same investor). The Myanmar Best Fortune is located only about 300 meters away from the KSeng factory. It was discovered that Myanmar Best Fortune, without our knowledge, was sub-contracted to produce some of the NWG during times of high order pressure. Thus, breaching our subcontracting policy. In addition, the unit was not audited by amfori BSCI and, thus, also breaching our requirements on social third-party audit.

Immediately when we became aware of the allegations and the unauthorized subcontracting, we put pressure on KSeng and Myanmar Best Fortune to act on all allegations raised. KSeng Apparel accepted their mistake and agreed to work to remediate the issues in the Myanmar Best Fortune factory as a precondition of further business with both at the main production unit and possible at Myanmar Best Fortune after remediation, confirmation of closing non-compliances, and passing of an amfori BSCI audit.

An amfori BSCI audit was conducted at Myanmar Best Fortune in December 2023 with Grade B, confirming good progress in their remediation work. As per today, NWG do not have any orders at the Myanmar Best Fortune factory.

Galaxy (Myanmar) (for Clique brand)

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New Wave Group response:

NWG was not aware of that Galaxy (Myanmar) had been used for producing NWG order when information was received from Business & Human Rights Resource Centre on January 17th, 2024. After investigations, it was found that the subcontractor was used by our Business Partner “Joint Profit (Myanmar) Garment” for one order in September-October 2023. Thus, breaching our subcontracting policy. In addition, the unit was not audited by amfori BSCI and, thus, also breaching our requirements on social third-party audit.

Joint Profit (Myanmar) Garment have accepted their mistake and together we have developed an immediate action plan to further investigate the circumstances. This includes onsite visit, inspection, and training for Galaxy (Myanmar) Management and employees. Based on the outcome of taken actions, we will decide on the next steps from there.

Once again, NWG acknowledges the seriousness of unauthorized subcontracting and that our organization has failed to have adequate routines in place to prevent that from happening, why we now take action to improve communication and understanding around the policy.

[The full response is attached]