Impahla 22 May

Stefan Seidel:

On behalf of PUMA International and PUMA.Safe, the sustainability section of PUMA, I would like to congratulate William Hughes and his colleagues at Impahla for achieving another important milestone on their journey towards becoming a sustainable company.

In fact, Impahla has shown exceptional performance in the field of sustainability over the last 8 years, in which the company has developed from a small local T-shirt manufacturer with average social and environmental performance to a PUMA strategic manufacturing partner and sustainability leader, setting positive examples for PUMA and our supplier base on a global scale.

Just to name a few examples:

In 2005, one year after the founding of the company, Impahla achieved the highest possible PUMA.Safe status of A and has retained this exclusive status ever since.

In 2007, Impahla was among the first companies worldwide to join a project on supplier sustainability reporting, co-funded by the German Development Agency and executed by the Global Reporting Initiative, the global standard setter for sustainability reporting.

In 2008, Impahla’s first sustainability report was issued, which immediately won the sustainability reporting award from the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA) in South Africa.

In 2009 Impahla became the first carbon neutral garment manufacturer in South Africa - and also in the entire PUMA supplier base. (I would like to add here that PUMA only achieved a carbon neutral status one year later in 2010.)

Consequently, William was asked to present the successful work of Impahla, at the Global Reporting Initiative's Global Conference in Amsterdam (with nearly 2000 participants), at PUMA's stakeholder Dialogue Talks at Banz in Germany and at the Global PUMA.Safe Supplier Summit in Vietnam - leading to an increased carbon footprint to be offset for Impahla - but most importantly helping to prove and communicate to an international audience that small and medium size apparel suppliers can successfully link sustainability efforts and business success.

2010 saw another outstanding and award winning sustainability report issued by Impahla, this time focussing on the social communities in which the majority of Impahla's workers are living and the important and critical topic of social justice.

In preparation for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, William and his team hosted the visit of a group of international journalists in the company, once more serving as best practice example for PUMA, despite hectic times to get our PUMA products ready for the World Cup.

In 2011 Impahla became the first PUMA supplier worldwide to issue an A+ level sustainability report, which is the highest possible reporting level and also involves independent assurance of the report. Furthermore, the company issued its own website - now sharing the reported information also online. At the same time the staff of the company had more than tripled since the founding of the company in 2004.

This year sees another first - the first photovoltaic power plant installed by a PUMA supplier worldwide. In line with PUMAs Mission Statement of becoming the most desirable and sustainable sportlifestyle brand, we do hope that other PUMA suppliers will follow soon and have featured a photo of the system within our PUMA Annual Financial and Sustainability Report 2011, which was just released this April.

Congratulations again - we are proud of having Impahla as an important partner in our supplier portfolio and look forward to continue the journey towards sustainability together.

Thank you