Jokey Wipperfürth successfully completes SMETA audit for the second time

The Jokey Group’s German headquarter in Wipperfürth, successfully completed the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) again at the end of 2024. To date, nine of the 14 Jokey plants have been audited according to the SMETA standard.

With this audit, Jokey is sending a clear signal of responsible and transparent action. The audit confirms the promotion of fair and sustainable standards in dealings with customers and suppliers along the entire value chain, as well as in the treatment of its own employees. These standards are consistent with the ten principles of the Global Compact Germany in the areas of human rights, labor standards, environmental protection, and anti-corruption, to which Jokey is committed. They are also included in the Group’s own Code of Conduct and in a code of conduct for suppliers, the Jokey Supplier Ethical Code.

“The SMETA 4-Pillar Standard is one of the most comprehensive assessment methods for sustainable and ethical corporate behavior and is therefore particularly valuable to us,” emphasizes Korbinian Müller, Chief Compliance Officer of the Jokey Group, who organizes the multi-day audits and also accompanies them at the Jokey Wipperfürth and Jokey Gummersbach sites in the Oberberg region. At all other locations, this is done by the respective compliance officers appointed by Jokey for each plant. While other ESG ratings rely on ranking questionnaires and self-assessment, the external and independent SMETA auditor conducts a comprehensive on-site audit in the areas of business ethics, the environment, health, and occupational safety. This allows him to gain direct insight into relevant processes – also through confidential employee interviews. “The SMETA audits are important for Jokey in several ways,” Korbinian Müller continues. “On the one hand, they support our social objectives and commitments with regard to the Jokey Sustainability Course 2030. 

On the other hand, with each audit we gain insightful findings that enable us to further improve working conditions and environmental protection in day-to-day operations and along the supply chains.” In the area of ​​compliance, for example, the SMETA audits support the faster identification of potential violations and provide additional evidence that Jokey is fulfilling its due diligence obligations, Müller explains. The detailed audits in the areas of human resources, facility management, and occupational safety are also beneficial for the respective plant because the practical implementation of operational processes is closely examined. In this context, the extensive employee interviews are also expressly welcomed as an essential part of the audits. These are not only very important for the verification of the conditions found, they also provide a realistic picture of the mood of the workforce and show whether the Jokey standards are actually being put into practice.

Sedex, the standard rating for ethical trade, initially requires a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) in the verification process. The second step can be an audit using the Sedex audit method SMETA, in which the information from the SAQ is evaluated according to predefined criteria. To date, the three German plants in Wipperfürth, Gummersbach, and Sohland, as well as the Jokey sites in France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Canada, Serbia, Egypt, and Turkey, have successfully completed the SMETA 4-pillar audit.