arena is committed to being fully transparent about our suppliers so that you know where our products come from and you can be confident that our partners share our values, rigorous best practices and a desire for continuous improvement.

INDEX
We, at arena, build our business with all our partners on a basis of trust, teamwork, honesty and mutual respect. We are also committed to being transparent by publishing up-to-date information on all our Tier 1 supply chain relationships.

We care about the wellbeing and rights of the more than 33,000 employees working in 43 factories across 15 countries and the impact these activities have within their communities.

The CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) team at arena is dedicated to ensuring that our global network of finished goods suppliers are always meeting, and exceeding, our rigorous standards and best practices. The arena family, from our staff to world-wide consumers using our products, are all bound together by a desire for continuous improvement, and we challenge and celebrate our suppliers to strive for the same. arena is proud that more than 80% of our top tier suppliers have been part of our community for more than three years as we build positive long term relationships.
Since inception, arena has based its success on long-lasting strategic partnerships with a selected pool of suppliers, some of whom we have collaborated with for over twenty years. We consider our suppliers more than simply manufacturers of our products: we involve them from the beginning of the development process, we share with them our ideas and we craft the products throughout the production cycle until they finally reach our consumers.

WHERE OUR PRODUCTS ARE MADE

arena’s Worldwide Tier 1 Supply Chain Network
DOWNLOAD THE SUPPLIER LIST

OUR SHARED VALUES AND BEST PRACTICES

arena starts partnerships with suppliers who respect the rights of all employees, who illustrate efforts to eliminate or minimize impact on the environment, who provide a safe and healthy workplace and who promote the health and well-being of all employees.

Wherever arena operates around the globe, we are guided by our Code of Conduct and we bind our suppliers to these principles. As an essential requisite for running business relations, suppliers are required to implement and integrate our Code of Conduct within their own employment principles, visibly affixing the Code of Conduct in local languages into areas devoted to arena production. Suppliers must also agree to our monitoring activities and guarantee compliance by each and every sub-contractor involved in manufacturing arena products.

Although arena reserves the right to terminate a relationship at any time for failing to meet our standards of conduct, in most cases termination will occur when a supplier refuses to cooperate with an assessment, refuses to change behaviour or does not make meaningful progress on remediation.

With the objective to further increase our commitment towards workers’ rights in our global supply chain, in full consistency with international labor standards, in 2017 arena has become a member of The Centre for Child Rights and Business. The Centre specializes in projects addressing child rights, with specific focus on children with migrant-worker parents. For more information on the CCR CSR and its initiatives, please visit www.childrights-business.org.

arena is proud to be affiliated with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as a Participating Company.
Sustainability is not a mere list of actions to be put in place, it is a mindset that has to guide our behaviour both in business as well as in private life. There is no shortcut in this process, we do not want to go for greenwashing, this is why we need to count upon partners who share our same vision and goals.

HOW WE SELECT NEW SUPPLIERS

arena evaluates and determines every new potential supplier in our network to ensure they meet the standards required to start a business relationship.
THE KEY AREAS OF EVALUATION ARE:
THE SUPPLIER QUALIFICATION PROCESS IS COMPOSED OF 3 MAIN PHASES:
PHASE 1: SELF ASSESSMENT (SAT)
Completed by the supplier to identify areas for improvement before phase 2.
PHASE 2: FACTORY ASSESSMENT
Performed by the arena Global Sourcing team (or by designated external provider). On-site evaluation to confirm status and improvements from phase 1. Assessment determines if potential supplier can commence production for arena or not.
PHASE 3: FOLLOW-UP AUDIT
Supplier commits to implement CAP (Corrective Action Plan) within 3 month.
Once the qualification process has been successfully completed and the business relationship has started, the supplier is automatically included in arena's ongoing CSR Monitoring Process.

HOW WE MONITOR AND ASSESS OUR SUPPLY NETWORK

arena continuously monitor every suppliers' compliance with the provisions of the Code of Conduct and track the implementation of each supplier's tailored CAP (Corrective Action Plan) to assess progress and improvements. Suppliers are required to be transparent and provide auditors with prompt access to facilities, records, and workers, including temporary and contingent workers.

Two types of social audits may be carried out at a supplier factory in the arena network:
1. FLA Sustainable Compliance (SCI) Assessment: random assessments by FLA staff.
2. arena CSR Audit: an audit directly managed by arena or a designated agency (with methodology validated by the FLA).
85% of arena Tier 1 manufacturing facilities around the world have been audited directly by arena or by an officially designated agency.

Each year, we draw up and implement a plan for our own csr audits of suppliers based around the following steps:
EVALUATION
CSR Team reviews and identifies Tier 1 suppliers to receive social audits through a specific risk assessment.
PLANNING
CSR Team works with third-party auditors to schedule audits.
EXECUTION
Third-party auditing firm conducts the audits and sends the results to the CSR Team - the report and the Corrective Action Plan (CAP) shared with supplier.
SUPPLIER RANKING MATRIX UPDATE
CSR Team updates the supplier's ranking based on the results of the audit.
CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN IMPLEMENTATION & FOLLOW-UP
Supplier implements the CAP and provides evidence to CSR Team to verify implementation. Follow-up audits are then periodically scheduled to verify remediation.
arena's suppliers are subject to the FLA (Fair Labor Association) Monitoring Program, which annually, randomly selects at least one of them for an additional third-party audit.

Findings from audits are considered as a critical tool to establish an improvement plan to be fulfilled for the sake of both the workers and a successful business partnership. We insist that the CAP for each supplier is drawn up with factory management within 30 days of receiving the assessment report and that improvements are implemented within 6 months. Violations of the Code of Conduct must be immediately addressed as a condition of continued production with arena.
As a leading brand in our industry, we feel the responsibility of driving change throughout the entire value chain. Through our affiliation to the Fair Labour Association, we want to make sure that all our suppliers, across all plants and factories, share and consistently apply a minimum set of rules and fair conditions for the workforce.

OUR SUPPLIER AWARDS PROGRAM

New for 2021, the arena Supplier CSR Awards Program is designed to recognize where suppliers are successfully making a difference and achieving positive results for workers' rights and compliance with the arena Code of Conduct. There will be two award categories:

1. CSR Performance
2. Best CSR Practice

The CSR Performance Award is directly connected to the results of arena's CSR Audit each year and the subsequent improvements made through each tailored CAP, rewarding the supplier with the highest overall ranking.

The Best CSR Practice Award is designed to celebrate proactive efforts and investments made in improving internal CSR Management Systems and the lives and safety of workers. Examples of initiatives could include creating an internal nursery, education and training programs, free transportation and special arrangements for food and gratuities for workers. All Tier 1 suppliers around the world will be invited to submit proposals to arena for consideration. Winners of both awards will be invited to the annual arena Global Sales Conference.

CONTACT US

If you would like to learn more about our commitment to transparency and how the CSR team select, monitor, assess and reward suppliers to meet our standards and continuously improve, then please contact us.

We will endeavour to respond to enquiries as quickly as possible.