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To ensure that her company stays on top of all the changes in the
compliance and ethics areas, she has two other directors and they all
specialize in certain areas. “Sharon Childs is the head of sustainability.
Becky Fluery is head of compliance. And I’m in the ethicability and
supply chain procurement space. Each of us is constantly growing our
knowledge in those areas. But actually I have to grow my knowledge
in most areas because I have to guide the team,” she says.
When working with customers who call and ask for a product
they’ve seen on the internet, Thorpe explains that she will be happy to
get the product for them through one of her approved suppliers, which
may be more expensive because the product is responsibly sourced. If
the client only cares about the cheapest item from a manufacturer that
Thorpe finds to not be compliant, she politely declines the order and
invites the customer to try them again on a future order. “If we break
our values once, then there’s no point of having any values,” she says.
But, she adds, most customers end up agreeing with her insistence on
only buying from approved suppliers after she asks, “What is the cost
to your business of purchasing a non-compliant product from an
unethical source?”
Managing Factory Audits
If you’re going to work with factories anywhere, you need to do
your due diligence, Thorpe says. One of the ways she manages risk is
by working with Sedex to manage factory audits. Sedex is a company
that centralizes factory audits to reduce the “factory audit fatigue” that
used to occur when major retail brands in Europe wanted to audit fac-
tories in person, slowing production. “Sedex provides a platform and
tools to help you capture all the information you need on a factory.
You can see and check the audit from the factory you want to use and
share that information with your customer,” she says.
She acknowledges that while U.S. distributors might not feel com-
fortable sharing factory information with their clients because of the
structure of the industry, “I think there’s no way around it.
Transparency is here and it’s staying. This is why you need to stand
out as a company. As long as you’re adding value all the way down that
chain, and you’re bringing expertise and protecting your client from
risk, then you have a place.”
Finding The Right Focus
With the industry changing at lightning speed, Thorpe says it’s
not enough to have expertise in multiple areas such as import, design,
project management, sustainability, compliance, distribution and global
distribution. “You also have to differentiate yourself, which is what I
hope we’ve done,”
she says of The
Sourcing Team’s
positioning as a
corporate social
responsibility
expert.
For instance,
sustainability is
one of Thorpe’s
guiding principles.
“I want the pro-
motional products
I choose to be rel-
evant, safe and
have a reasonable
lifespan and an
end-of-life dis-
posal plan.”
Thorpe doesn’t
just talk the talk.
She walks it too, through involvement in industry organizations such
as the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA), where
she served on the board for 19 years. She also serves as a fellow of
the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), a global
procurement institute that shares best practices, codes of conduct
and training.
Current Challenges
Being a global company and keeping up with the pace of change
are the biggest challenges faced by The Sourcing Team today, and
Thorpe has found partnering and diversification to be effective solu-
tions. Just like in the U.S., many distributors in the UK specialize in a
certain industry, but Thorpe has done just the opposite. “We like to be
in different sectors to protect us from any one industry having prob-
lems,” she says. And in the last recession, that strategy paid off. Her
business grew while many distributors that had specialized struggled.
“It’s a very exciting market with some very exciting local and
global opportunities. The challenge is finding the right space for you.
I think we’ve found that space but to be where we are has been very
hard work.”
It’s that hard work that they will celebrate during a big 20th
anniversary party in 2016.
NOVEMBER 2015 •
PPB
• 11
12
Pitch Perfect
EYE ON APPAREL
19
Turn Up The
Heat On Cold
Calling
QUESTION
22
Deliver Great
Customer
Experiences
FEATURE STORY
Thorpe (left) recently received an award from
Senator Pens UK for continued Premier League
business, meaning consistent business growth
with a preferred supply partner.