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Product quality and safety
Product quality and safety are also key to our sustainability strategy. Action ensures that all of its products are safe to use and that they comply with all relevant safety regulations and norms. In the case of products that are unsafe or lack quality, Action has a proper management of recalls and withdrawals.
We keep track of our recall and withdrawal rate and make a distinction between public safety and silent withdrawals. Public safety withdrawals involve a potential risk to the health and safety of our customers, which leads us to ask customers to return the product in question. While silent withdrawals have different, often technical or organisational causes, such as products with labelling deficiency or products that are out of season.
But this priority goes far beyond product compliance. From the beginning to the end of the buying process we have different safety and quality checks in place. We work closely together with ProductIP to manage these checks and gain the required technical transparency, and through it, product quality and safety. We aim to have full technical transparency of our entire assortment in 2025, regardless of the sourcing route of the specific items.
Howard Wan, Global Key Account Manager Retail at TÜV Rheinland
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Safety and quality from scratch
Local authorities in the countries where Action operates all have their own requirements for product quality and safety. Combined with the fact that Action launches 150 new products every week, you can image that this poses quite a challenge. The TÜV/GS certificate for Action's wooden Mini Matter toys for its youngest customers meets international quality and safety requirements. This respected German quality label is well known internationally and guarantees the highest quality and safety.
Management of material topic
As part of our strategy of safe and legal trading, we want to continue to reduce the amount of product withdrawals and non-compliances by increasing our technical transparency. The Product pillar is responsible for safeguarding product quality and safety and works closely together with compliance, buyers, quality and local managers to ensure the implementation of the policies and methods, and to ensure compliance with national regulations.
This topic is managed by the regular monitoring of product and compliance standards. We gain insights by working with numerous partners such as ProductIP, TÜV Rheinland and national authorities. We ensure that this information is captured at a product level through our Product Specification Sheets. In this way, we aim for full technical transparency of the entire assortment delivered to Action, regardless of the sourcing route of the specific items, and to reduce the number of silent withdrawals.
Progress made
Every year, Action works to optimise the assessment method to close any remaining gaps. During 2022, we signed off on the strategic need for a Product Safety Policy, which we will launch in early 2023. This will be supported by the development and implementation of a Compliance Management System, which we will develop business wide. And most importantly, in 2022 we delivered technical transparency of all indirect private labels sourced.
Our supplier quality assessments are done in collaboration with ProductIP. In 2022, we encountered 31 cases of non-compliance with regulations. This resulted in fines and nine cases in which a warning was given.
Monitoring and evaluation
No later than 2025, we want to have full technical transparency of the entire assortment delivered to Action, regardless of the sourcing route of the specific items.
Remaining targets
In the management of this material topic compliance with national legislation and thus coordination with national authorities, is very important. We regularly align with them through dialogue.
The role of stakeholders
We are motivated and ready to take steps to improve our impact in each material topic. In 2023, we will start with setting targets, KPIs where needed, and continue to implement our strategies for all topics that are further along in the process. We will continuously review our methods and metrics to make sure that our measures are leading towards our targets.
Looking forward
Back to Product
Back to Product
Product quality and safety
Product quality and safety are also key to our sustainability strategy. Action ensures that all of its products are safe to use and that they comply with all relevant safety regulations and norms. In the case of products that are unsafe or lack quality, Action has a proper management of recalls and withdrawals.
We keep track of our recall and withdrawal rate and make a distinction between public safety and silent withdrawals. Public safety withdrawals involve a potential risk to the health and safety of our customers, which leads us to ask customers to return the product in question. While silent withdrawals have different, often technical or organisational causes, such as products with labelling deficiency or products that are out of season.
But this priority goes far beyond product compliance. From the beginning to the end of the buying process we have different safety and quality checks in place. We work closely together with ProductIP to manage these checks and gain the required technical transparency, and through it, product quality and safety. We aim to have full technical transparency of our entire assortment in 2025, regardless of the sourcing route of the specific items.
Howard Wan, Global Key Account Manager Retail at TÜV Rheinland
Read more
Safety and quality from scratch
Local authorities in the countries where Action operates all have their own requirements for product quality and safety. Combined with the fact that Action launches 150 new products every week, you can image that this poses quite a challenge. The TÜV/GS certificate for Action's wooden Mini Matter toys for its youngest customers meets international quality and safety requirements. This respected German quality label is well known internationally and guarantees the highest quality and safety.
Management of material topic
As part of our strategy of safe and legal trading, we want to continue to reduce the amount of product withdrawals and non-compliances by increasing our technical transparency. The Product pillar is responsible for safeguarding product quality and safety and works closely together with compliance, buyers, quality and local managers to ensure the implementation of the policies and methods, and to ensure compliance with national regulations.
This topic is managed by the regular monitoring of product and compliance standards. We gain insights by working with numerous partners such as ProductIP, TÜV Rheinland and national authorities. We ensure that this information is captured at a product level through our Product Specification Sheets. In this way, we aim for full technical transparency of the entire assortment delivered to Action, regardless of the sourcing route of the specific items, and to reduce the number of silent withdrawals.
Progress made
Every year, Action works to optimise the assessment method to close any remaining gaps. During 2022, we signed off on the strategic need for a Product Safety Policy, which we will launch in early 2023. This will be supported by the development and implementation of a Compliance Management System, which we will develop business wide. And most importantly, in 2022 we delivered technical transparency of all indirect private labels sourced.
Our supplier quality assessments are done in collaboration with ProductIP. In 2022, we encountered 31 cases of non-compliance with regulations. This resulted in fines and nine cases in which a warning was given.
Monitoring and evaluation
No later than 2025, we want to have full technical transparency of the entire assortment delivered to Action, regardless of the sourcing route of the specific items.
Remaining targets
In the management of this material topic compliance with national legislation and thus coordination with national authorities, is very important. We regularly align with them through dialogue.
The role of stakeholders
We are motivated and ready to take steps to improve our impact in each material topic. In 2023, we will start with setting targets, KPIs where needed, and continue to implement our strategies for all topics that are further along in the process. We will continuously review our methods and metrics to make sure that our measures are leading towards our targets.
Looking forward
Back to Product