5. CSR application: a case study

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5. CSR application: a case study

Kingfisher is one of the main European player in home improvement retail. The company got over than 1.300 stores and 9.000 employees in Europe. The company portfolio includes several important brand such as: Darty (France), Promarkt (Germany), Comet (UK), BCC (Netherlands), Vanden Borre (Belgium), B&Q (UK), etc. The group had total sales for £10.331 millions and a pre tax profit of £ 686 millions in the 2016.

Since 2001 Kingfisher lead a lot of attention to CSR with many social activities and reports. Mainly, Kingfisher identified six ways in which it believes CSR can help its business:

  • Being ready for the future. The firm management tried to identify issues and problems that could affect the bottom line (positively or negatively) in order to solve them avoiding the potential risks.
  • Respect for people. The Kingfisher group tried to be an attractive places for workers (on the basis of Google and other firms) in order to retain skilled staff and to have the possibility to choose between more candidates.
  • Stores that communities welcome. The companies tried to maximize customer loyalty by improving the workforce morale.
  • Product innovation. Kingfisher management identified products considered as “green products” that consumers want to buy.
  • Costs Saving. Kingfisher management recognize that many CSR initiatives are largely good housekeeping, such as reducing waste and retaining staff more effectively.
  • Brand. The group used innovation and excellence within individual operating companies to enhance the reputation of the group as a whole.

The group crated a responsibility committee (composed by nine persons) which includes six members of the main board of directors and three independent members. The social responsibility team worked closely with the committee and provided coaching and advice to managers within individual operating companies. One of the challenges for Kingfisher was to develop a flexible strategy in order to accommodate the differences between individual businesses to reflect a group vision. According to the companies definition of CSR they tried to be sure that in helping customers they improve the quality of life without destroy someone else's. Indeed, improving customers quality of life the company was able to improve its image and its position on the market. In the CSR PLAN (2001) the company identified 12 key trends (or key issues) in their planning that have the potential to affect (positively or negatively) Kingfisher's ability to do business now and in the future. The issues are:

  1. The way we treat all our people is becoming more important than ever;
  2. Every product will soon be telling a story - and they will all need to be good;
  3. Communities will reject businesses who are not good neighoburs;
  4. Our suppliers need to be cleaner and greener too;
  5. We are selling more wood, but it is becoming harder to find;
  6. Chemicals are causing increasing concern and controversy;
  7. We need to plan what happens when our customers want to dispose of the products they bought from us;
  8. Packaging waste will become a bigger financial waste;
  9. We will be judged by the way the people who make our products are treated;
  10. Moving more stock is good - more traffic congestion is bad;
  11. Climate change equals changes to homes - appliances will change too;
  12. When we throw rubbish away it takes our profits with it.

Working on this keypoint Kingfisher group reached several goal such as:

  • Improved theirs image on the marked;
  • Improved quality of life of workers;
  • Improved financial results;
  • Improved income thanks to the selling of “green product”