Supply Chain
Responsibility
Our goal is to work with diverse, high-quality suppliers to innovate and address societal issues within the supply chain.
Our companies work hard to develop strong, sustainable supply chains by partnering with thousands of suppliers from growers to manufacturers.
Our suppliers deliver high-quality goods and services, manage business risk and find innovative solutions to tough issues. Open dialogue, shared expectations and honest feedback contribute to these strong relationships – some dating back decades.
We promote a strong culture of compliance and equip our employees to exercise sound business judgment when selecting suppliers. We work with suppliers who respect workers' rights; reduce costs and their environmental impact; and comply with our contracts and laws. Employees receive communications and training on topics such as antitrust, anti-bribery/anti-corruption and third-party vendor management.
As marketplace dynamics, our industry and our businesses change, we remain committed to enhancing our supply chains to provide a competitive advantage for our companies. Through continuing to foster diversity and inclusion within our supplier base, and ongoing collaboration with key stakeholders, we will be able to evolve our supply chains to be flexible, secure and sustainable for the long-term. Together, these actions allow us to meet societal expectations as a responsible company while developing strong supply chains for our future success.
Jodie Clarke
Vice President, Procurement
"I am proud of the progress we have made this past year, including our focus on fostering diversity and inclusion in our supplier base, and the continued collaboration with stakeholders who are key to our supply chains."
Our Supply Chain Management Approach Includes:
Develop a Diverse Supplier Base
Supplier diversity contributes to our companies' success by generating new ideas, promoting different perspectives and providing a competitive advantage. We work with diverse suppliers, including minority, women, veteran and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-owned (LGBTQ) businesses. For many years, we've supported organizations including the National Minority Supplier Development Council and the Women's Business Enterprise National Council to increase business opportunities for their members. Learn more about our Supplier Diversity Registration.
Communicating Our Expectations
We communicate expectations for our suppliers through Altria's Supplier Code of Conduct, Tobacco Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Supplemental Guidelines and our contracts. Our Supplier Code of Conduct addresses compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards. The Code covers topics such as non-discrimination, child and forced labor, environmental compliance and workplace safety. Learn More.
Assessing Supplier Performance and Requiring Suppliers to Remediate Findings
Our monitoring programs assess our suppliers' compliance with our expectations and contracts. These programs encourage continuous improvement, help identify areas for greater focus, and if needed, remediation. Altria's tobacco companies conduct third-party audits of direct packaging and product materials suppliers, direct contracted growers, international leaf suppliers and contract manufacturers where there's significant country risk, supplier criticality, brand risk and where we can improve supply chain compliance.
Engaging with Stakeholders
We engage with our suppliers and other stakeholders to monitor and address opportunities and concerns within our supply chain. For our tobacco businesses, we work directly with growers, regulatory agencies, agricultural stakeholders and working groups like the Farm Labor Practices Group and GAP Connections to help growers, farm labor contractors and farmworkers better understand and comply with labor laws and regulations.
