future

Every day Action

It makes sure all important information for our customers is just one swipe away.

7 April 2021
The Action App is launched in the Netherlands
Action for the future: Moving to the next level

Action has proven itself as essential to our millions of customers. This provides us with two main opportunities: continue to surprise customers and exceed their expectations every time they visit Action. And to exploit the great potential in terms of expanding further and faster in new countries, reaching more customers with our stores, our assortment and our excellent teams. Creating new jobs and opportunities for our employees as we accelerate our growth and development. We are aware that we live in challenging times and that the conflict in Ukraine affects what we do. Our hearts and thoughts are with all who are affected or who are concerned about family and friends in the region.

We have proven that we are able to offer both low prices and sustainable items. We see many more opportunities to improve further and strengthen the sustainability impact of Action across our operations. Because we believe being a sustainable discounter can be done. It must be done. We have been making progress and continue to make progress every day. It’s in our DNA. Being cost- conscious makes us very aware of conserving materials and resources and limiting waste. This doesn’t happen overnight. But we are committed to continuing the journey we have begun and to reaching our targets.

Continue to improve in times of uncertainty

We will accelerate the digital opportunities for the Action formula. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced the added value to our customers of adding digital services to meet their needs. Services like the Action App, Click & Collect while stores were closed and an e-commerce pilot in the Netherlands. Each day millions of customers interact with our digital touchpoints. We continue to optimize our digital channels and services based on evolving customer needs while inspiring and surprising them with relevant content. Our Action App will be rolled out into more countries in 2022 so customers have access to our digital services 24/7. We will include functionalities to make their instore shopping experience even more fun. Furthermore, we will continue to explore opportunities for our e-commerce proposition and innovative digital solutions to put big smiles on our customers’ faces.

Accelerate our digital offer

Action can only be successful if our employees work together - feeling proud about the work they do, the opportunities they experience, the products we offer and the effort we make to be the best Action we can be to our customers and the communities we serve.

As we have passed the turning point of our 2000th store, we continue our journey. For Action, the sky is the limit as we move up a gear into 2022 and the years ahead.

Work together, grow together across the value chain

The responsibility that comes with our size and growth is captured in our Action Sustainability Programme. For 2022 and beyond, we have set ambitious goals for People, Planet, Product and Partnerships.

A closer look at the Action Sustainability Programme for 2022 and beyond
  • Engagement, inclusion and diversity: Targeted actions to further improve employee engagement and our employer net promotor score, maintaining and leveraging the diversity in our workforce, expanding the scope of our scholarship fund, and developing a plan to create Action Ambassadors.

  • Recognition and personal growth: Stimulating internal store promotions and apprenticeships, increasing the number of training hours per employee, providing fair pay and benefits for all employees and concluding the leadership development programmes for all management levels.

  • Care for well-being: Rolling out the health and safety strategy (including setting annual targets and developing performance reporting to further raise health and safety awareness), applying more focus on well-being, incident reduction, absenteeism and employee retention.

We want all our people to be proud to work for Action. In 2021 we updated our people strategy. In 2022, we will focus on:

People
  • Green electricity for all stores, offices and distribution centres.
  • Investigating the possibilities to remove gas from distribution centres.
  • Finalize the switch to LED lighting in all stores.
  • Acquire BREEAM Excellent status for the new distribution centre in Ensues (France).
  • Reduce the relative carbon emissions from store transport using alternative fuels.
  • Developing a strategy to reduce and recycle waste
  • Reducing and greening our energy usage:

Based on the progress achieved in 2021, we are accelerating our efforts to halve our Scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint by 2030 (versus the 2020 baseline). Key steps in 2022 include:

Planet
  • Green electricity for all stores, offices and distribution centres.
  • Investigating the possibilities to remove gas from distribution centres.
  • Finalize the switch to LED lighting in all stores.
  • Acquire BREEAM Excellent status for the new distribution centre in Ensues (France).
  • Reduce the relative carbon emissions from store transport using alternative fuels.
  • Supply chain transparency: in 2022, we will achieve 100% supply chain transparency for our private label products, covering both social and technical compliance.

  • Product circularity: in 2022, we will complete all category specific circularity baseline assessments and further embed circularity in our buying practices

  • Social compliance: we will update our Ethical Sourcing Policy in 2022

  • Packaging: by the end of 2022, we will no longer purchase any dark plastic packaging for our Private Label products

  • Product safety:

In 2021, we made solid progress towards supply chain transparency as the basis for sustainable sourcing . We will continue to implement our current strategy and also investigate any greater levels of product and packaging information required by legislative developments. We will also continue to engage with key stakeholders on topics like packaging, social compliance and circularity to further strengthen our sustainable product strategy. Key targets and activities for the years ahead include:

Product
  • Cruyff Foundation: Action has recently partnered with the Cruyff Foundation, which shares our ambition to help children and young adults. The Cruyff Foundation develops sports activities for children all over the world, with a focus on children in need. We plan to partner and co-invest in several new “Cruyff courts”, which benefit the local neighbourhoods and communities through improved quality of life.

  • Collaboration: We are looking forward to getting better every day by collaborating with like-minded people and fostering new relationships in 2022. Together, we can deliver bigger smiles to communities across Europe.

Action is part and partner of society. In 2021, we actively contributed to SOS Children’s Villages and local communities in 2021. In 2022, we want to do more, where and when needed.

Partnership
  • Cruyff Foundation: Action has recently partnered with the Cruyff Foundation, which shares our ambition to help children and young adults. The Cruyff Foundation develops sports activities for children all over the world, with a focus on children in need. We plan to partner and co-invest in several new “Cruyff courts”, which benefit the local neighbourhoods and communities through improved quality of life.

  • Collaboration: We are looking forward to getting better every day by collaborating with like-minded people and fostering new relationships in 2022. Together, we can deliver bigger smiles to communities across Europe.

Action is part and partner of society. In 2021, we actively contributed to SOS Children’s Villages and local communities in 2021. In 2022, we want to do more, where and when needed.

Partnership
  • Green electricity for all stores, offices and distribution centres.
  • Investigating the possibilities to remove gas from distribution centres.
  • Finalize the switch to LED lighting in all stores.
  • Acquire BREEAM Excellent status for the new distribution centre in Ensues (France).
  • Reduce the relative carbon emissions from store transport using alternative fuels.
  • Supply chain transparency: in 2022, we will achieve 100% supply chain transparency for our private label products, covering both social and technical compliance.

  • Product circularity: in 2022, we will complete all category specific circularity baseline assessments and further embed circularity in our buying practices

  • Social compliance: we will update our Ethical Sourcing Policy in 2022

  • Packaging: by the end of 2022, we will no longer purchase any dark plastic packaging for our Private Label products

  • Product safety:

In 2021, we made solid progress towards supply chain transparency as the basis for sustainable sourcing . We will continue to implement our current strategy and also investigate any greater levels of product and packaging information required by legislative developments. We will also continue to engage with key stakeholders on topics like packaging, social compliance and circularity to further strengthen our sustainable product strategy. Key targets and activities for the years ahead include:

Product
  • Green electricity for all stores, offices and distribution centres.
  • Investigating the possibilities to remove gas from distribution centres.
  • Finalize the switch to LED lighting in all stores.
  • Acquire BREEAM Excellent status for the new distribution centre in Ensues (France).
  • Reduce the relative carbon emissions from store transport using alternative fuels.
  • Developing a strategy to reduce and recycle waste
  • Reducing and greening our energy usage:

Based on the progress achieved in 2021, we are accelerating our efforts to halve our Scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint by 2030 (versus the 2020 baseline). Key steps in 2022 include:

Planet
  • Engagement, inclusion and diversity: Targeted actions to further improve employee engagement and our employer net promotor score, maintaining and leveraging the diversity in our workforce, expanding the scope of our scholarship fund, and developing a plan to create Action Ambassadors.

  • Recognition and personal growth: Stimulating internal store promotions and apprenticeships, increasing the number of training hours per employee, providing fair pay and benefits for all employees and concluding the leadership development programmes for all management levels.

  • Care for well-being: Rolling out the health and safety strategy (including setting annual targets and developing performance reporting to further raise health and safety awareness), applying more focus on well-being, incident reduction, absenteeism and employee retention.

We want all our people to be proud to work for Action. In 2021 we updated our people strategy. In 2022, we will focus on:

People

The responsibility that comes with our size and growth is captured in our Action Sustainability Programme. For 2022 and beyond, we have set ambitious goals for People, Planet, Product and Partnerships.

A closer look at the Action Sustainability Programme for 2022 and beyond

Action can only be successful if our employees work together - feeling proud about the work they do, the opportunities they experience, the products we offer and the effort we make to be the best Action we can be to our customers and the communities we serve.

As we have passed the turning point of our 2000th store, we continue our journey. For Action, the sky is the limit as we move up a gear into 2022 and the years ahead.

Work together, grow together across the value chain

We will accelerate the digital opportunities for the Action formula. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced the added value to our customers of adding digital services to meet their needs. Services like the Action App, Click & Collect while stores were closed and an e-commerce pilot in the Netherlands. Each day millions of customers interact with our digital touchpoints. We continue to optimize our digital channels and services based on evolving customer needs while inspiring and surprising them with relevant content. Our Action App will be rolled out into more countries in 2022 so customers have access to our digital services 24/7. We will include functionalities to make their instore shopping experience even more fun. Furthermore, we will continue to explore opportunities for our e-commerce proposition and innovative digital solutions to put big smiles on our customers’ faces.

Accelerate our digital offer

We have proven that we are able to offer both low prices and sustainable items. We see many more opportunities to improve further and strengthen the sustainability impact of Action across our operations. Because we believe being a sustainable discounter can be done. It must be done. We have been making progress and continue to make progress every day. It’s in our DNA. Being cost- conscious makes us very aware of conserving materials and resources and limiting waste. This doesn’t happen overnight. But we are committed to continuing the journey we have begun and to reaching our targets.

Continue to improve in times of uncertainty
Action for the future: Moving to the next level

Action has proven itself as essential to our millions of customers. This provides us with two main opportunities: continue to surprise customers and exceed their expectations every time they visit Action. And to exploit the great potential in terms of expanding further and faster in new countries, reaching more customers with our stores, our assortment and our excellent teams. Creating new jobs and opportunities for our employees as we accelerate our growth and development. We are aware that we live in challenging times and that the conflict in Ukraine affects what we do. Our hearts and thoughts are with all who are affected or who are concerned about family and friends in the region.

It makes sure all important information for our customers is just one swipe away.

7 April 2021
The Action App is launched in the Netherlands

Every day Action