Supplier Code implementation in Athenian Brewery

Just before the summer of 2007, Athenian Brewery started the implementation of the Supplier Code. As a first step, the Heineken Supplier Code was translated into Greek and it was made a part of the company policy with its integration into the local purchasing policy manual. As a second step, all suppliers with a purchasing value of over EUR 50,000 or in possible risk areas were listed.

Within the Greek purchasing team, a dedicated person was appointed to explain to individual suppliers what was expected of them. In line with Heineken policy, suppliers who do not comply with the pre-requisites from the Code are granted time in which they are to improve their standards to reach full compliance.

“We made a good start in 2007 and are in the process of training our purchasers at all our sites,” says Andreas Geragidis, Supply Chain Planning & Purchasing Manager with Athenian Brewery. “For each employee working in the purchasing department we are establishing their training needs based on the context of the purchasing manual to deal with this issue in a correct way. We aim to conclude necessary training in the first few months of 2008.”

The Greek Supplier Code will be an integral part of the purchasing contracts and will be subject to regular audits. “We are quite happy with the Supplier Code as it emphasises that Athenian Brewery, being one of the leading companies in Greece, takes its responsibility towards society seriously. This is a good signal to both my own colleagues and to our society at large.”